Fire and Ice
by Wishing on Fireflies
Summary: Leah Clearwater transfers to Forks High to get away from unwanted memories, but something happens that destroys hope of a normal, Sam-free life. She falls into a downward spiral until comfort comes from an unlikely source. Leah/Jasper.
1. The Cold Ones

**Okay, a few quick notes. First, Leah can't imprint in this story, since she's a female and, well, if you read the books you know about her theory. Second, in this story, Leah is a grade above Bella because it works better. Also, Alice and Edward are together instead of Alice and Jasper. Now please enjoy the story. **

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I couldn't believe that I was actually doing this. Leaving my friends, the rez that I'd grown up on my entire life, to go to Forks High School. It was stupid. The dumbest thing I'd done in my entire life, but I needed to.

After Sam left me for Emily, I had to get away. To leave the stupid rez and the terrible memories, and go _somewhere. _With my extremely limited budget and my senior year of high school still in front of me, there was only one place that I really could go. And that was Forks. My dad was living with me in a shitty apartment a couple blocks from the school, and even though I missed my mom and Seth like crazy, I was still thankful that he'd gone along with this whole plan.

Thankful, but also terrified as hell. Being the new kid was bad enough, but I'd be the only Indian there. That was like having a sign over my head that screamed 'Hey, look, stare at the freak show!'.

I tried not to care about what people thought of me. Usually, I _didn't _care. But two hundred kids, staring at me, was not something that I was looking forward to.

Grimacing, I took one step towards Forks High School. Then another, and another. There were students bustling all around, but I doubted that anyone could tell I was new because of the shapeless black raincoat that I wore, which more or less matched everyone else's. I'm sure that the worn jeans and tattered Nikes just screamed rez-girl, but thankfully no one bothered to look closely enough to see them.

Before long, I came to the building that was supposed to hold the office. It was surprisingly warm inside, and thankfully empty of students. At least the secretary would be mature enough not to ask any dumb-ass questions.

As politely as I could, I introduced myself and asked if I could have my schedule. Something about my expression must've warded off chitchat because the old woman nodded and started digging through a folder.

That was when the door swung open. I was tempted to put my hood back up to avoid unnecessary questions, but it would've been too late. Doing my best not to groan, I glanced at the person out of the corner of my eye, planning to see whether or not I'd need to make a quick getaway, when I realized exactly who else was in the room with me.

Turning my back slowly to the secretary, I got a good look at one of the famed Cullens for the first time. Or at least I assumed it was a Cullen, given the description that I remembered from my father. Pale skin, good-looking features, bruise-like circles under the eyes. Almost certainly one of 'them'.

This one was a boy. Lean, wild red hair, a fake-smile, and yellow eyes that made him look plain-ass creepy. For the first time, I vaguely wondered if the rumors about the Cold Ones weren't true, because this guy definitely didn't look human.

The boy stared at me with his yellow eyes, and I swore that he was shooting me a warning look, like he knew exactly what I was thinking. I backed up slightly, telling myself that I was being stupid, that those vampire legends were the result of old guys smoking too much peace pipe, but it was kind of hard to believe that when you had a guy with honest-to-god yellow eyes shooting you cryptic looks.

"Miss Clearwater?"

I turned around to see the secretary holding my schedule out to me. Without another word, I took it from her and hurried out of the room, purposely bumping into the Cullen boy on my way out. He was hard enough that it hurt my freaking shoulder, and the knowledge made my blood go cold.

There was no way, no damn way, that the Cullens were actually vampires. I mean, for crying out loud, that was just stupid. Dumb. Hilarious. I was overreacting, letting the stories I heard get into my head. Honestly? Vampires?

Yeah, right.

With that conviction made, I quickly looked over my schedule, shoved it into the pocket of my jeans for later use, and made my way to History, my first class.

All eyes were on me the second that I was in the room, including the teacher's. Resolutely ignoring all of them, I made a beeline to a seat in the back corner of the room and sat down. Then regretted it.

There was another one of them, another 'Cold One', right next to me, and I hadn't even noticed. The first thing I noticed about this one was his posture. The redhead had looked relaxed, human, kind of. This guy was stock still, and when I looked closely, he didn't seem to be breathing.

It was like he was a statue. A very, very handsome statue. For as unimpressed as I was by the other Cullen's good looks, I was floored by this one's. Wild, but soft-looking honey blond hair, a leonine build that was seriously the hottest I had ever seen, and features like an angel.

That's how perfect he was, honestly. I didn't ogle guys. Never. But I couldn't look away from this pretty white boy.

He must've felt me more or less undressing him with my eyes, because a moment later, I found him looking confusedly in my direction. His eyes weren't yellow, like the other Cullen's, but darker. Ocher, kind of. Not half as unsettling.

He shot me a strained smile, revealing perfect white teeth. I mean, not just nice teeth, like you see in movies, but unrealistically straight, impossibly clean, teeth. And I knew. Maybe it's crazy, that I managed to figure it out so soon, but I actually think I should've known the second that I saw the other brother.

It added up fast. The rock-hard skin, yellow/gold eyes, inhuman beauty, freakishly perfect teeth, and the way that blondie didn't even seem to be breathing.

The Cold Ones were real, and I was going to freaking high school with them.

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Sitting by myself at lunch that day, I made sure to keep an eye on the Cullens. As I expected, they didn't eat. Actually, the redhead spent most of the time staring at me, along with a tiny little black-haired chit that looked like a pixie. Edward and Alice. Those two worried me the most. Edward with his staring, and Alice because she just looked like a creep.

Thankfully, they were the only two looking at me. Everyone else was focused on the less fierce new student, Isabella 'Call me Bella' Swan. I ignored her, but I was glad no one else did. Apparently a little pale girl from Phoenix was more exciting than a poor bitch from the rez, and I wasn't going to complain.

As I choked down a disgusting slice of pizza that could hardly be considered food, I sent another look in the direction of the Cullens' table. For once, Edward's creepy yellow eyes were focused on the Swan girl, and Alice was talking to the blonde bitch who I was unfortunate enough to be partnered with in French. Unfortunately, the other two guys were staring at me.

Emmett was smiling. Not barring his teeth smiling, but smiling, like he wanted to come over here and give me a hug or something. That I didn't understand. The other guy, Jasper, looked pissed. I'd found out his name first, sadly, because even if he was a vampire, I honestly don't think I'd mind if _he _bit me. Every freaking part of him had me swooning like a little school-girl. I liked his hair best, though. His wild, long, 'I look like I stuck my finger in an electrical socket' hair. It just looked soft. Like you'd want to run your hands through it.

Then I realized what I was doing. Ogling a Cold One. A vampire. When I hadn't even looked twice at a guy since the whole thing with Sam.

It wasn't right. I narrowed my eyes at Jasper, cursing him for making me think such disgusting thoughts. He continued to glare back, looking largely unconcerned. Tall, blonde, and bitchy made a comment, and Emmett laughed like crazy. Jasper turned away from me, and I got up and left.

Unfortunately, I felt a presence right behind me as I headed in the general direction of my locker. When I turned around, it was Edward.

My stomach clenched with fear. This was just great. It was probably time for _his _lunch now.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he said soothingly, even though he looked pretty damn annoyed.

I glowered at him. Why would he have thought that I was worried about him hurting me? My face hadn't shown anything, I was sure of it. My face never showed anything.

"Okay," I said, then hesitated. Should I play stupid? Would he kill me if he knew that I knew? Or would it be better to confront him about it. I wouldn't tell anyone, I hoped he knew. It was against the treaty, which I was going to have to take seriously for the first time in my life.

"You don't have to play stupid," he said. "I know that you've heard the stories about us, that you know what we are. I just came out here to make sure that you knew to keep those stories to yourself."

Wait. How in the hell did he-

"You're reading my fucking thoughts," I growled at him, taking a step in his direction. Vampire or not, I was going to beat the hell out of him.

"Yes, I am," he said smoothly. "However, I will make sure to give you as much privacy as I can as long as you promise not to reveal our secret to any of our classmates."

_Say something? _I thought at him. _As much as I'd love to notify the population of your condition, I'm not quite ready to die yet, thank you. _

"We wouldn't kill you. It would just make it necessary for us to move, and that would be extremely inconvenient. I am, however, thankful for your. Please act normally, and it will be easy to pretend that you know nothing about us."

"Alright, fine," I said dismissively, and that was that.

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The next several weeks passed in a rush. Every day seemed to be the same. Get up ridiculously early. Walk to school. Ignore everyone and be ignored by everyone, especially the vampires. Do homework. Try not to think about Sam. And repeat.

The only break from it all was the weekends, when my dad and I would head back to the rez to see Seth and my mom. Seth would basically ambush me the moment that I set foot into the house, then pelt me with questions about school. I'd tell him how boring it was, that the teachers actually cared whether or not you turned your work in, and that all of the people there were uninteresting.

My dad would give me a grateful look when I kept my mouth shut about the Cullens. I had told him about Edward and how I finally believed the stories, and he just nodded, warned me to be careful, and reminded me that the Cullens didn't kill people, so I shouldn't worry too much about them.

As it was, both of us worried about them enough not to mention anything to my baby brother. I didn't mind not talking about them. For all I cared, the stupid family deserved to be ignored. Every single one of them.

Unfortunately, things were never quite that easy.

I started feeling feverish about a month after the school year started. Not sick, I assured my father, just… off. His eyes got huge, and he opened his mouth several times like he was going to say something big, but instead he told me to get some rest and that I'd be better soon.

Then he called Sam. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it sounded urgent, and I was scared to death, worrying that maybe I was dying or something, that my dad was begging him to come and give me a pity kiss.

And the saddest thing was, I was actually kind of hopeful. As much as it would've shrunk my ego, as much as I would have hated it, I would have done anything to kiss Sam one more time. Tall, strong, funny, brave, too-good-for- me Sam.

Apparently I wasn't dying, though. My dad told me I would be fine and sent me off to school the next day.

I wasn't fine. I couldn't focus at all, my head didn't stop spinning, and everything felt so dang hot.

I was miserable, and the cautious looks that the damn Cullens kept shooting me weren't helping. It was like they were worried I was getting ready to explode. Hell, maybe I should've been worried, if they were looking at me like that. Knowing them, they could probably smell some life threatening disease working its way through my system.

Jasper was the worst. Stupid blond. I swear that his dumb eyes, which had now turned yellow, weren't off me the entire day. Normally I wouldn't have cared. Maybe, I would've even liked it, but he wasn't staring at me or checking me out. It seemed like he was waiting for something, like he was worried.

A part of me was tempted to stomp up to the stupid angel of a vampire and ask him what in the hell his problem was, but I didn't want to get that close to him. I didn't know if he could read minds like Edward, and I didn't want to find out. Then he'd know that I was crazy obsessed with his hair, that his stupid perfect face haunted my dreams, and that I'd been lusting after him since my first day here.

So I ignored him, and all of the others, and focused on getting through the day without fainting, which wasn't as easy as it sounded. As the day progressed, everything kept getting worse and worse. I even asked to sit out of gym, which was my favorite class by far. I could hardly walk straight, let alone run. The spinning in my head was turning into a pounding headache, and a kind of burning pain was starting to run up and down my spine.

And my fever. Damn, that stupid fever. It felt like I was on fire. Everything was hot, I was sweating like a pig, and I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to leave.

Without saying anything to the teacher, I bolted. Ran faster than I ever had in my life, because suddenly the school was too small and too hot, and I _needed_ fresh air.

When I made it out into the cool September air, I swore that it'd help, but I couldn't feel any change in temperature at all, and even the light rain seemed to sizzle on my skin. My fever was too high. I took several gasping breaths, trying to calm myself down, but it didn't work.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, a freaking freezing cold hand, and whirled around in panic, my instincts screaming at me to run. It was Alice, the psycho pixie girl, and she looked scared.

"You have to get away from here," she said hurriedly. "Right now."

I shook my head. No way was I going to listen to a stupid bloodsucker.

"No," I said, and my voice came out in a terrifying growl that scared the hell out of me. Alice backed up slightly, her golden eyes wide. Why was she scared of me?

"You have to go," she repeated in panic, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. "I- you're going to change into a werewolf!"

That was it. I snapped. If that crazy little vamp was going to get a kick out of making me panic, then she had another thing coming. All that I wanted was to tear her apart. My fever suddenly turned uncontrollable, and my vision flashed red.

Then it felt like I was tearing apart from the inside. Like my bones were cracking open, my muscles ripping in half. Like I was dying. It was the most terrible, agonizing pain imaginable. Everything hurt, and I was on fire. A sickly sweet smell made me dizzy, but I could barely focus on it over the sheer agony that threatened to take over everything.

A minute later, the pain was completely gone, replaced by something else. The sickening smell of bleach. The sound of birds chirping, students talking, cars driving, music playing… everything. And a feeling of speed and strength that made me want to run. Blinking slightly, I opened my eyes for the first time, and let out what was supposed to be a gasp, but ended up as a strange growl-like sound.

The world around me was unbelievably clear. I could see _everything_. It was beautiful, perfect, unbelievable. Then I saw Alice Cullen in front of me, and pulled up short, seeing the sheer terror in her eyes, how worried that she'd been, how much she wanted to get me away from the front of the school.

Because… because I was a werewolf.

No fucking way.

But when I slowed down to think, I knew that she was right. I could feel it. The way I was standing on all fours, the strange positioning of my eyes, so that my peripheral vision was ten times better than normal, and my long muzzle, built so that I couldn't speak.

Terror seized my chest, and I was scared, confused, disgusted. So I did what my instincts told me to. I tried to take it out on Alice.

A low growl escaping my throat, I jumped at the hideous smelling vampire and went for her throat, but she dodged me and ran, and I sprinted after her, unbelievably fast, knowing how to run on all fours without even thinking about it.

The bloodsucker led me past the school, into a forest, then turned on me. I kept going, straight for her, but she dodged me at the last second and said, "Leah, calm down."

Calm down. She wanted me to calm the hell down. No way, not with my instincts screaming at me to kill her, not with every muscle in my body wanting to tear her apart. She was bad, an enemy, and I had to take her down.

My answer was a low growl, and I went for her again, but this time I feinted left and went right, ramming right into her. When she was down, I took her arm in my mouth and got ready to tear, knowing that this was what I had to do.

Then I was rammed into by something that felt a hell of a lot like a truck. One second I was on the little black-haired vampire, and the next I was being tossed to the ground like a bag of meat.

When I got my bearings, I saw the terrifying vampire on top of me for the first time, and my heart stopped in sheer horror. His face and neck looked like a puzzle, torn up and put together again. That's how many little crescent shaped marks there were. Vampire bites, instinct told me. They screamed dangerous. I didn't want to fight him, I wanted away from him, because surely he was going to kill me. Surely this was going to be my last second to live, because this vampire warrior wasn't one to let his prey go easily.

Then my shock wore off, and I realized who, exactly, this vampire was. The beautiful, angelic features, amazing honey blond hair, and fierce ocher eyes.

Jasper Hale.

Suddenly, I felt disgusted at myself. He was obviously a murderer, not the same as the other Cullens. Not like them at all. Now I was going to be another victim, and I lowered my head, knowing that I was screwed, that there was no way I could possibly beat a vampire like this.

At least death wouldn't be so bad. I wouldn't have to hurt over Sam anymore, anyway. I just hoped that he'd be merciful.

"Don't be so afraid, Darlin'. I'm not planning to hurt you," he said softly. It was the first time he'd spoken to me, and I was shocked by his slow, easy voice. There was even a hint of a Southern drawl. Not an evil vampire voice at all. "You just need to calm down and change back. Then you can go to your father, and he'll help you."

My father. Oh, God. Suddenly all thoughts of death were replaced by worries of what he was going to do, of what he was going to think. To know that his daughter was a freaky werewolf!

Then I felt waves of blissful calm coming over me, and, before I knew it, my panic and fear and anger were all dulled enough that I could took several deep breaths without going hysterical. My heartbeat slowed, I vaguely realized that Jasper Hale was on top of me, and that he still had pretty hair whether he was a murderer or not, and I focused on that unbelievably soft-looking hair until my muscles relaxed and I could feel a slightly uncomfortable sensation that ended in me becoming human again, lying exhausted and naked on the forest floor.

Underneath a freezing cold, unbelievably hot vampire. My eyes narrowed into a glare, and I hissed, "Get off of me, Hale."

He hastily listened, thankfully getting us out of the awkward position we were in. My cheeks flooded with blood as I folded myself into a ball, trying to cover everything that needed covering.

"Here," another voice said. I turned to see Alice standing beside me, holding out an unfamiliar bundle of cloth. A t-shirt, it looked like. "It's Emmett's. We didn't have any extra clothes, so it was the best I could do without running home."

As much as I hated taking clothes from them, it was better than sitting naked in front of Jasper, so I hurriedly pulled on the t-shirt, which fell halfway to my knees. It stank like hell.

There was an awkward silence once I was dressed. Looking at Jasper made me sick, especially because he looked so unconcerned about the general ruining of my life, but seeing Alice's eyes, full of pity, wasn't any better, so I settled for watching the forest floor.

"You should get to your father," Alice finally said gently.

Right. My father.

I nodded to the both of them, then numbly walked away, knowing that I should thank them, but not feeling like actually doing so.

There was so much on my mind that I didn't even feel guilty about it.

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**Please review! I dunno if I'll continue or not, but good feedback could persuade me to keep going. Thanks a bunch.**


	2. Pushy ExBoyfriends

**Wow. Ten reviews for just one chapter. That's like really, really awesome. Thank you guys all so much, and I hope you like the chapter. **

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I couldn't make it home. I know that it was crazy as fuck, but every couple of minutes I thought of something that made me mildly annoyed, and I'd change again. And again. And again.

It hurt like hell, too. Every time it got a little quicker, a little easier, but it wasn't painless, and doing it again and again was beyond exhausting. Every single part of me ached, and I wanted nothing more than to stop, but I couldn't.

I was like a slot machine that never stopped spinning.

Wolf. Human. Wolf. Human.

At one point, I tried to just stay wolf, but my body wouldn't listen to me. After wandering the forest for ten minutes, back I went. Again. And again. And again. That vampire guy's shirt was completely ruined, too, so if I did ever get out of the forest, I'd have to run through half the town naked.

That knowledge upset me, and I saw red, started shaking, and exploded into a wolf again.

With an annoyed, exhausted growl, I plopped onto the ground and stayed there, knowing I'd change back again within five minutes. That was when I smelled it- a beautiful woodsy scent that made my stomach do little flips, but that made me want to start sobbing at the same time. It was ten times stronger now, but there was absolutely no mistaking who the smell belonged to.

I wanted to run away, but I was too exhausted to bother moving just because Sam was coming. Hell, maybe I could even tear off his pretty little head, if I was lucky.

Lucky. As if I could ever really hurt him. He dumped me for my fucking cousin, and I still loved him too much to want anything to happen to him. Even now, I had no doubt that I'd just run away if he wandered too close.

That was my plan, anyway. Then I actually saw him walk through a break in the trees, and all of my muscles quit working. Crazy, stupid, love started flowing through my system, and despite all the shit I was going through, all that I could think about was that he looked perfect. Short black hair, high cheekbones, and the most intense brown eyes I had ever seen.

Those beautiful eyes focused on me, then, and I almost melted. He didn't look afraid, or surprised. Just very, very sad. There was a moment when I thought that he was going to turn and leave, but instead he just shook his head and said, "God, Leah. This wasn't supposed to happen to you."

I froze. How in the hell did he know it was me? What was he even doing here? Why wasn't he- My questions came to an abrupt halt when he changed. Just like it was the most natural thing in the world. One second Sam was there, and the next he was gone, replaced by an enormous black wolf.

Holy mother of God. You have got to be kidding me.

_"I'm not going to hurt you," _he thought, and I jumped backwards. He was in my head. Sam fucking Uley was digging around in my head, telling me that he wasn't going to hurt me. As if it wasn't too late for that.

The wolf flinched, and I could hear muddled thoughts going through _his _head. He was feeling guilty as hell, worried, but more than a little pissed off that I had to be the second one to change. That we were… in a pack, alone.

_"Pack? Fuck no. I'm not in any messed up pack of yours, Uley." _

He was full enough of himself that he actually thought I was childish for calling him by his last name. As if he deserved to be addressed properly. Asshole.

_"Please, just calm down, Leah. I know that this is hard for you, but I can answer all of your questions. You need my help."_

_"Help? I'd rather shoot myself. I don't need anything from you." _

I don't know why I bothered with such a blatant lie, but a part of me hoped that he wouldn't see how wrong that sentence was. Of course, the big black wolf shook its head, so I'm pretty sure he figured out just how much I did need from him.

_"I know you have a reason to hate me, but going through this transformation is hell with no one to help you."_

_"Ha ha. I've been through hell, Sam, and this isn't even close," _I thought bitingly. Then I began to recite multiplication tables in my head to keep him from seeing anything else. He hovered about ten feet away from me, then started coming closer, thinking about how he wished I'd let him help me.

_"Lee-lee, please-" _

That did it. No fucking way was he allowed to call me that anymore. I let out a low growl and jumped at him, but he rolled out of the way and started pleading with me to settle down. Then he started tossing other thoughts in my direction, saying that he did love me, but that he _didn't have a choice _when it came to Emily. He started thinking about something called imprinting, how it happened to every werewolf, and once you saw that person you were meant to be with, nothing else came close to her, even if she wasn't what you wanted.

I slowly backed away from him, knowing that what he was saying was true. He couldn't lie with his thoughts. He didn't leave because he didn't love me, but because some fucked up wolf thing forced him to, and I think that hurt even worse. Now, I couldn't even be mad at him because it wasn't his fault. I couldn't be mad at Emily, either. There was no one to be pissed at except myself, for not being good enough to be his imprint.

_"That wasn't what I was getting at," _he thought desperately.

Of course it wasn't. Because he was too sweet for that. Sweet. Perfect. Funny. All gone. Not mine, not anymore.

_"Leah," _he pleaded. And then he was coming closer, and closer, and I couldn't bring myself to move, even though every little step made my heart wrench painfully in my chest.

_"Sam," _I thought, not even bothering with using his last name. He knew that I didn't hate him, so there was no point. _"If you care about me at all, just let me go. My dad knows all about the legends. Please let me figure it out with him." _

_"You'll go back and forth like this for a while. At least for the rest of the day. Your dad won't be able to help you with that." _He took another step forward and gently nuzzled my neck, but I growled at him until he backed away.

_"Then I'll do it by myself. Having you here will only make it more miserable." _

A million different thoughts went through his head, but eventually he turned and walked away, thinking, "_Please call if you need anything. I'll be looking out for you." _

Then I heard him phase back, and he was gone.

I stayed where I was, trying not to think as the slot machine kept rolling, changing pictures each time. Wolf. Human. Wolf. Human. It would've been painful under any circumstances, but going through it alone, on the filthy forest floor, was almost more than I could take.

I must've fallen asleep sometime in that stretch, because the next thing I knew, it was morning. Birds were chirping everywhere, it was actually sunny, and I felt too shitty to enjoy it.

If I hadn't felt so drained, I would've thought that the whole werewolf thing was some kind of terrible nightmare. But it wasn't a nightmare. It was real. I was a werewolf, and so was Sam, and by the way it sounded, we were the only two right now, and-

My form started shaking, I saw red, and I changed again.

I didn't move for a very long time, figuring that going anywhere would be useless when I'd just change back right away, but I stayed a wolf. Ten minutes passed, then fifteen, and eventually I started moving around, then jogging, stretching out my sore, tired muscles.

It felt good. Real good. I never went very fast since I was so tired, but even going slow as a wolf was one of the most amazing sensations I had ever felt. Being able to run like that almost made this whole crazy fucked up thing totally worth it.

I phased again a couple hours later, but things got a lot easier after that. I only changed two more times that day. By the time that night rolled around, I figured that I could make it home. Once I was sure that it was late enough for most people to be asleep, I snuck back to the apartment complex.

My dad answered the door when I knocked. It was clear that Sam must have talked to him, because he looked more relieved than surprised by the state that I was in. There was a moment of awkward silence, where I was sure one of us was going to start crying, but it ended when he reached out and wordlessly wrapped his strong arms around me.

It made me feel safe. Together. Like there wasn't some kind of monster just waiting to rip its way out of my skin.

"Leah," he said into my hair. "I was so worried about you."

"I'm fine, Dad," I said. And I was fine. Even though I felt like a weak little kid for thinking it, things would never get too bad as long as my dad was there to help me.

Dad pulled back a little and framed my face with his hands. After a moment, he shook his head and smiled. "You look tired, Lee. Go shower and get some sleep, and then I'll try to answer your questions tomorrow."

I nodded and ran off to our smelly little bathroom, quickly washed away all of the dirt and twigs, then dropped onto my bed and fell asleep within seconds.

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The next few days were hard, but I got through them with my dad. We'd get up early and head out into the forests, then spend the day discussing all of the little parts about being a werewolf.

If I heard something that made me upset, like having Sam as my alpha, I'd blow up and change, but after the second or third day, at least the random switching back and forth stopped.

Actually, once my dad had told me everything, and I could manage to stay human for most of the day, it wasn't extremely bad. I avoided wolf-form like the plague, since Sam was in my head half of the time I changed, but as long as I was human, I didn't see a huge problem with it.

Freaky, maybe. Life-destroying? Let's just say that the wolf-gene had nothing on Sam Uley.

Then the real kicker came.

The weekend arrived, and we were supposed to head down to La Push to visit Seth and my mom, who both knew _nothing. _My dad said that it would be better to tell them face-to-face.

Not a conversation I was looking forward to.

Seth would probably be fine. The kid could smile through anything, I swear. But, God. Mom.

She'd be worried before I said a word. I wouldn't blame her, actually. I looked like a fucked up teenage rebel version of myself, with all of my hair hacked off into an ugly-ass pixie cut and wearing a ratty tank top and five-dollar shorts. Hell, the werewolf thing would probably be easy for her to accept compared to the fact that her baby girl looked like a fucking hobo.

"You ready to go, Lee?" my dad called. I sighed and hopped off of my bed. Not ready, but as close to it as I'd ever get.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm ready."

So we headed out of our shitty little apartment and down to our crappy old Chevy. It was basically a bucket of rust, and the only reason it ran anymore was because Embry Call had a big enough crush on me to fix it for very little money.

My dad drove. He could probably tell that I'd probably ram into a tree or something today, seeing how full my brain was of other stuff. Not that it'd hurt me anymore. I needed my dad alive, though. He was the only one who I trusted to hold me together right now.

The short trip passed by way too fast, and we were outside of our little yellow house before I knew it. Seth was shooting hoops in the driveway, seemingly unaware of the fact that the ground was basically a giant mud puddle. The kid was filthy. His skinny little legs were soaked, and the too-big t-shirt he was wearing had more or less turned brown.

I hated to admit it, but he was kind of adorable. Then I remembered that our dad said he'd probably change sometime within the next couple years. No more cute little puppy-dog Seth. More like giant wolf Seth. The thought made me sick.

One of his shots bricked off the rim and rolled into the street, and I grabbed it on my way up the driveway. Seth jogged over with a grin on his face and opened his mouth to say something, then stopped when he really saw me. In a moment, the grin, the friendliness, all of his excitement, went flying out the window.

He opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish.

"Like me new hairstyle?" I asked dryly.

There was a short silence where he continued to gape at me, then he forced a smile and tried, "Er. Yeah. It's… cute."

"The truth, Seth."

His grin turned real, and he reached over with one of his huge puppy-paw hands and mussed up my hair. I opened my mouth to tell him off, but he spoke before I could. "It stinks, Lee. Why'd you cut it all off?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

"Let's go inside and talk," I said. "Mom will probably want to know, too, and it's kind of important."

For as big of a goofball as Seth could be, he sure as hell wasn't slow. He knew something was wrong, and his eyes turned worried as he looked between our dad and me. I could see that he wanted to ask a million questions, but they all died on his lips as he nodded, then turned to go inside. I followed.

Mom was washing dishes when we entered the house, but she wiped off her hands and quickly turned around, starting to say something about being glad to see us. Then she saw me. Her smile disappeared and her lips naturally pursed together. There was no doubt that her brain was trying to match pretty little Leah with the girl standing in front of her.

"Hey, Honey," Dad said, his voice loaded with false cheer. Mom ignored him and marched over to me, taking in everything from my flip-flopped feet to the top of my wild hair.

There were probably a million things going through her head at that moment, but instead of voicing her concerns, she softly said, "Aren't you cold, Leah?"

I looked straight at her and raised a scorching hand to her cheek. Worry flitted through her eyes, and she laid a cool hand on my forehead, asking if I was sick, if I had a fever.

"Sue? Do you think we could sit down first? Leah has something really big to say," Dad interrupted.

Big. Nice euphemism. It was more like life-ruining.

_"Okay, sweetie. What do you have to tell us?" _

_"Well, Mom, you see. I turn into a horse-sized wolf when I get pissed off. Isn't that just dandy?" _

She's gonna be so proud.

"Oh, God. Leah. Are you pregnant?" my mom asked, eyes wide. I cringed when I realized exactly how easy it would be to come to that conclusion.

"Nope. Definitely not that," I said. A harsh laugh bubbled out of my throat just because the notion was so fucked up. I hadn't even kissed a guy since Sam, and not much happened with him besides that, seeing as he didn't want to 'rush' things. More like he didn't want to waste his time with me when he was already screwing my cousin.

"Then what-" she started, but I held up a hand.

"Dad's right. Let's go sit down."

Without another word, the four of us silently made our way to our tiny living room. Mom and Dad sat tersely on the beat-up old sofa, and Seth plopped down on one of the mismatched armchairs. I stayed standing, feeling like someone had let a couple dozen Energizer bunnies loose in my stomach

Seth and my mom looked at me expectantly, and I raked a hand through my too-short hair.

I figured I could babble and drag this out painfully, but then discarded the idea. Nope. No useless chitchat. I would get it done with, like taking off a Band-Aid. It would be easier on all of us.

So, with that thought in mind, I took a deep breath and said, "I'm a werewolf."

My mom believed the stories, more than my dad, even. She hadn't even wanted me going to school at Forks because she thought the Cullens would hurt me. So she knew I wasn't joking. Shock flitted across her face, and her eyes darkened instantly, but I knew I wouldn't have to do any convincing on her part.

Then I looked at my brother, which was the honest-to-God hardest thing I had ever done in my life.

He was looking at me expectantly. Waiting for the punch line. Looking for a laugh. I stared at him, and slowly that look faded into concern. As in, 'You need to see a therapist' concern.

"Lee," he said, shaking his head. "That's not… those stories, they aren't…"

Without saying anything, I walked over to him and took his hand in mind. He stared, and I knew what he was feeling. I was hot. Unnaturally hot.

"Is that normal, Seth?" I asked, trying and failing to make it sound like I didn't give a shit. Because with Seth, I'd always give a shit. Even though he got way too annoying sometimes, I loved my brother, more than anything or anyone. Even Sam, or any other stupid guy.

"You're just sick," he said softly, still shaking his head. "You're just-"

"Seth? Could I talk to you for a moment?" our dad interrupted. I released a grateful breath as Seth swallowed nervously, then followed my father into another room. Leaving my mom and me. Alone.

"There weren't supposed to be any females," she said worriedly. "We'd always worried about Seth because of his genes, but you…"

"It was supposed to be impossible," I finished, and, not for the first time, I couldn't help but wonder if this happened to me because I wasn't _really _a girl. Well, I mean obviously I knew that I was a girl, but a part of me questioned if I wasn't as feminine as normal. If maybe I had some kind of messed up guy genetics.

My mom must have read my thoughts, because she was getting up and hugging me a second later, saying that she'd always love me, and that wouldn't change, no matter what. Seth came back a then, looking worried, but he hugged me too, and pretty soon even my dad joined. I let it go for a second because I was feeling sentimental, but then I pushed them away and muttered that I wasn't a first grader anymore.

Seth laughed, and then asked if I wanted to go outside and play one-on-one.

"So you think you can take on a werewolf?" I asked, snorting. He couldn't even beat me before. The kid had no chance now.

"Clearly," he grinned. "Now you'll actually have a fighting chance."

I laughed at him a little, then followed him outside, relieved that things didn't seem too horrible. For just a moment, I thought that maybe being a werewolf didn't have to mean that I couldn't have a somewhat normal life.

Unfortunately it didn't take too long for me to figure out how wrong I was.

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**So, what'd you think? Please, please tell me. There aren't exactly an abundance of Jasper/Leah shippers around, so even just a little message to tell me you're reading would make my day.**

**Thanks.**


	3. Too Many Vampires

**Wow. Twenty two reviews in just two chapters. You guys are unbelievably awesome. And just to clear things up, like I mentioned in the author note in the first chapter, this is AU. Edward and Alice are together, so Jasper is free. Just to clear up confusion. There'll be stuff about how Jasper got to the Cullens later on, though.**

**Enjoy the chapter.**

Two weeks. That's how long my dad let me beg out of school. Then he was convinced I could make it through the day without phasing. I wanted to bitch, and complain, and throw an all-out shit fit, but I knew that he was right. I did need to get back to school, despite how little I wanted to see the Cullens.

So, with as little ceremony as possible, I got up early and walked to Forks High.

People stared. Not like I blamed then. Even humans knew that something was wrong with missing two weeks of school because of an 'illness', then coming back looking like an Olympic athlete. I'd shot up four inches in fifteen days, my features had grown over a year older, and there was at least an extra ten pounds of muscle packed onto my body.

With my new hearing, I could hear all the rumors going around, too. I went on a steroid binge. The tribe sent me into the wild as punishment for leaving the rez. I'd been captured by the government and forced to undergo inhumane experiments.

It probably would've pissed me off if the ideas weren't so hilarious. Forks really, really needed some entertainment. Actually, by the time that I plunked down into my seat in history, I was thinking that I could just laugh my way through the day.

Then I smelled it. The disgusting, gut-wrenching, gag-inducing, sickly sweet stench of vampire. Jasper entered the room a moment later, and I had to cough to hide the growl that escaped my throat at the sight of his face.

Like before, I couldn't look past his scars. Each bite mark screamed dangerous, and a part of myself wanted to count the marks, just to know how many vampires this guy had faced in battle. How many vampires had died fighting him. From first glance, it looked like hundreds. Maybe thousands.

My hands started shaking, and my heartbeat quickened. Every fiber of my inner-wolf was screaming at me to take out the obviously dangerous threat. The part of myself that didn't rely on instinct firmly reminded the wolf part about the treaty, and that he _did _help me that first day I phased.

Then Jasper turned to look at me, and his cautious golden eyes met mine. They were guarded. Not guarded as in 'trying to hide something' guarded, but in 'trying not to give a shit' guarded. He could probably feel that I was scared of him, and the stupid vampire didn't like that. Which made me feel guilty, and the fact that I felt guilty pissed me off.

I glared in the leech's direction until Mr. Lawrence entered the room and started blabbering. Paying attention wasn't exactly easy after two weeks of no school, and the stink machine beside me made it even harder. Then, things got a whole lot worse.

Mr. Lawrence concluded his lecture and handed out worksheets, ordering us to partner up and finish by the end of class. In La Push, I always had someone coming up and wanting to work with me. Back before Sam ruined me, I was actually popular.

Here, I had no one. In my other classes, I just stuck back and waited for everyone else to partner up, so that's what I did here. It wasn't until Jasper and I were left that I realized that the vampire would obviously be the one without a partner.

Jasper gave me an apologetic look, like he wouldn't hate this just as much as I was going to, then easily moved his desk closer to mine. The stench had me coughing, and I unconsciously scooted away from him.

"Bad smell?" asked Jasper, smirking slightly. Like he was amused that I was burning my nostrils out. I was kind of surprised that he actually spoke, though. My imagination had turned him into a silent killing machine.

"Imagine sticking your head in a bucket of bleach," I snorted. My voice was hard. Talking to vampires wasn't exactly a werewolf thing to do. "But enough talking. I just want to get this done, and then we can go back to ignoring each other."

I started to take out my history book, but found a freezing hand placed on my arm. It was so cold that it almost burned. I flinched so hard that I banged my elbow against my desk.

He didn't even seem to notice, just drawled, "You won't need that", like I hadn't freaked out on him.

My eyes scanned the worksheet, and I laughed harshly.

"Let me guess. You were _in _the Spanish American War."

"Civil War, actually," he said slowly. His eyes were focused on me, waiting for my reaction, but I didn't give him one. "I _have _been through sixty years of high school, though."

"Why?" I asked, forgetting about the whole war thing. He raised an eyebrow questioningly, and I elaborated. "What's the point of you going through all of that school? Shouldn't you be spending your time exploring this great world of ours?"

Jasper didn't answer for a long time, instead focusing on writing something on his worksheet. I held my breath long enough to lean over and copy down his sentence. His handwriting was big and loopy, kind of like it belonged on the Declaration of Independence. Hell, it wasn't far off. He was probably buddy-buddy with Lincoln or something.

"I've seen too much of the world already," Jasper murmured. I jerked my head away from his paper, wondering what in the hell he was talking about. Then I remembered my question.

I furrowed my brow at him. He was rich, gorgeous, and immortal. What was his problem? Then I remembered his scars and almost kicked myself. Obviously he hadn't had a super-easy life, otherwise he wouldn't look like a walking jigsaw puzzle.

"You know, I'm not too surprised by that answer," I said. He laughed under his breath, and the stupid, non-wolf part of me couldn't help but realize that it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard. "It looks like you've been through hell and back."

The amusement left his scarred-up face, and he ran a hand through his soft-looking hair. "You have absolutely no idea," he muttered, sounding about a thousand years old.

I was going to laugh, to say that, yeah, I did have an idea. But the look in his eyes stopped me. Something in my gut told me that there was no way getting dumped by a boyfriend compared to what this guy had gone through.

So, shaking my head slightly, I muttered, "And I hope I never do."

Then the conversation ended and we finished the paper. My instincts still told me he was dangerous, but my brain reminded me that he didn't seem so bad. Then I remembered that he was a fucking vampire, so I told both to shut the hell up. It didn't matter if he was a dangerous one or not. He was a walking corpse with no soul. My kind and his kind did not get along.

I scowled and didn't look at him for the rest of the hour.

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"So if was trapped under a bunch of snow from an avalanche, you could be like one of those search dogs and find me by smell?" Seth asked, his brown eyes excited. I rolled my eyes. He was into this werewolf thing way too much.

"Yes," I said, pausing for a second so that he could catch up to me. Apparently he'd been missing me, so our mom basically ordered me to do something with him. Since going to a movie or the mall with my eighth grade brother was out of the question, we eventually settled on going on a hike together.

"How big are you when you turn into a wolf?"

"Roughly the size of a horse." He opened his mouth again, but I interrupted him, already knowing exactly what he was going to ask. "And no. I'm not going to show you."

He deflated a little, bowing his head and letting his shaggy black hair hang in his face before he perked up again. "But if you changed, then I could ride you and you could show me what you meant about how fast you can go. Wouldn't that be awesome?"

God. He always looked so excited. It almost made it impossible to be mad at him for all of his questions. Almost.

"Seth. Please. Could you just-" I started, then froze when I smelt it. Sickly sweet to the point of burning, and close. I grabbed Seth's arm and tried tugging him in the other direction, but he jerked his hand away.

"Leah, what-"

"Vampire," I hissed, already starting to shake. There was more than one, they weren't Cullens, and they were getting closer. Too close to run away. "Seth, stand back."

He listened, and I let the wolf explode out of me, trying to ignore the way my brother stumbled backwards in surprise.

_"Sam! God, please tell me that you're there,"_ I thought desperately. No answer. Crap. Not knowing what else to do, I let out a deafening howl, then started turning in circles, waiting for the vampires. It wasn't long before two of them emerged from the trees. They focused on Seth with burgundy eyes, and I growled.

_"Leah. What's going on?"_ Sam thought urgently. The smallest amount of relief flooded through my system, but I didn't answer. He could see what was going on easy enough.

"Um, hi," Seth said to the leeches, trying and failing to smile. Neither of them looked at him. They were focused on me unsurely. No doubt they could tell I wasn't a normal wolf, and were wondering what'd happen if they tried to attack Seth. "I know it's pretty tempting to kill me right now, seeing as I'm an innocent little human, but-"

Now the bloodsuckers looked surprised. "You know what we are," the guy said.

"I'm Quileute," Seth rushed out quickly, stalling pretty well, actually. I could see that Sam was running over from the reservation, only a few miles away. In less than two minutes, this would be a pretty even match. "We have old legends about you guys. And, er, the Cullens are kind of… friends of ours. So they'll be angry if you kill us."

They studied him carefully with dark eyes. Very dark eyes. So they weren't just vampires. They were thirsty vampires.

"Carlisle did not mention any 'friends'," the male vampire said. Seth shrugged, still smiling. The only thing that showed me he was really scared were the shaking fingers he had buried in my fur.

"Well," Seth said, swallowing hard. "I don't have a reason to lie. Since if you try to kill me, my sister will tear you to pieces."

I growled, trying to emphasize his words. The leech's eyes fell on me again, and they shared a surprised look. Obviously Seth sounded more than a little crazy, saying that a wolf was his sister and all. It didn't take them long to figure out I was a werewolf, though, not by the way that their relaxed postures tensed up. They'd known I wasn't normal, but now they knew what was off.

Good. It was nice to see the vampires' invincible attitude crumble.

"I see. And are their more like your… sister around?" the male asked. The female, who was tiny and almost timid-looking, grabbed onto his arm a little. I could kind of picture her saying 'Come on, honey. Let's get away from the big scary wolf, now'.

"Yes, there are," he said, bobbing his head overly enthusiastically. With almost perfect timing, Sam burst into the clearing and ambled over beside me, standing closer than he needed to.

"_Get away from me. Now," _I hissed mentally. Getting orders from his beta pissed him off, but he actually listened. At least he wasn't too thick to realize that this wasn't the time for an argument.

"Like him," continued Seth. "But they won't hurt you. Not if you ignore the tasty-smelling human and go away."

The two vampires looked from each other to Sam and I, then the male gave Seth a tight smile.

"Very well, then. There is no need to fight when it would be no difficulty to simply feed elsewhere. You are lucky that you came upon us when we were not hunting," he said. Then they bowed their heads respectfully and took off.

Seth took a shaky breath, then collapsed against me in relief, hugging my neck tightly. "God, Lee," he said. "I thought they were going to hurt you."

I growled at him angrily. He shouldn't have been worried about me at all. Selfless people make me sick, especially since I know that I'm never going to be anywhere near as noble as them. Well, and because I was scared as hell for my brother, and he wasn't even smart enough to be worrying about his skinny little human self.

"And I was worried about myself," Seth quickly added, probably just to appease me. I shook my head a little. It floored me, how he could actually care about someone like me more than himself.

_"You're underrating yourself, Leah. You are worth caring about." _

And, tender moment over. A jagged pain ripped through my chest, and I jumped away from Seth and towards Sam, growling my head off. Stupid self-righteous asshole.

"_If Seth wasn't here, I'd eat your throat out for saying that,"_ I mentally spat at him. He shook his head at me. His thoughts were sad and confused, but Emily popped up in his mind, too. Gentle, sweet, smiling. The jackass was subconsciously comparing us.

I whirled around and nuzzled Seth's elbow. I would have phased back, but there was no way I was getting naked in front of my brother. It would've been too awkward. He could ride me back, just like he wanted to.

As if riding your sister like a fucking horse wasn't weird at all.

Sam's background thoughts, which now consisted of how amusing I was, were beginning to get old. Maybe if the moron would just _change back, _I would calm down a little.

_"I'm not phasing back until I make sure that you and your brother get to safety,"_ he thought.

"_I can take care of myself,"_ I snapped bitingly. _"Go back home and fuck Emily. I won't be missing you." _

Those words were a big mistake. I mention fucking Emily, he thinks about fucking Emily, and I'm treated to a wonderful little porno that tears my heart out. He quickly forced the images out of his head once he realizes what they did to me, then started apologizing, but thankfully Seth interrupted.

"Er, I know that you're probably having a wolf-conversation or something, but shouldn't we get out of here before more vampires come back?"

Sam knew he was right, he knew he was screwed, and he knew that if he stayed a wolf for one second longer, there would be blood. So the asshole shifted right there in front of me. I whirled around so that I was facing Seth because seeing Sam naked really wouldn't help me get over him at all, and then I gave Seth another nudge, begging him to hurry up.

He understood what was going on better than a fourteen-year-old should have, and snapped at Sam to, "Quit being a jerk to my sister", then threw himself over my back. I waited for him to get comfortable, and once he was, I took off. Slow at first, for Seth to get used to, then faster until I was going full speed, away from the vampires and Sam and the stupid pictures of him and Emily.

Then we were back in the forest outside our little house in La Push. I slowed to a stop, and Seth jumped off of me with a huge grin on his face. "Holy crap. I can't believe how fast you are. That was unbelievable, Lee. We have to go again some time. And then, when I'm a wolf, we can race, and-"

I let out an annoyed growl and he stopped, but was still smiling like crazy when he ran into the house. Shaking my head, I followed after him. He just survived an encounter with vampires, and he was acting like it was the best day of his life. Then again, he acted like every day was the best day of his life.

And I was jealous as hell, since I couldn't remember having a day that I could consider anything more than 'okay' since Sam had left. Oh well. When you were on the bottom, things could only go up.

Right?

**REVIEW!**


	4. Breaking

**Sorry that was so late. I just started school and have had a ton of homework. I'll try to get the next one up sooner. Thanks for all the awesome feedback. **

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I had patrols that night. Sam called my house and left me a message saying that we had to keep them up until the two unknown vampires left. So, because I had school during the day and couldn't do anything then, I wound up staying up all night and running circles around the rez.

The most boring twelve hours of my life, I swear. Then, to make things a million times worse, I didn't even get a chance to sleep. I got home from patrols, showered, then headed down to Forks High.

It sucked. More than a little. Then, as if my day couldn't get any worse, I caught a whiff of two certain vampires when I sat down in history. When I jerked my head to the side to see where it was coming from, my eyes landed on Jasper. He was staring at his desk and not breathing again. Like a corpse.

"Bloodsucker?" I whispered. He turned his head to look at me. His eyes were dark. Way too dark. Almost black. I'd been planning on asking who his friends were, but instead found myself hissing, "What in the hell are you doing here today? You look thirsty."

"I am fine," he said softly enough that only I could pick it up with my enhanced hearing. "Don't worry. With you here, it isn't as hard to control."

"Huh?" I asked, having absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Jasper laughed slightly.

"Everything within ten feet of you smells like wet dog," he said. "It cancels out the more appetizing smell of human blood."

Oh. Well. That was nice to know. I suppose I shouldn't be too offended, seeing as wet dog was better than bleach at least. "And the classes that I'm not in?"

"I value human life too much to risk pushing myself. If I feel that I am in danger of losing control, I will leave."

I looked at him for another few seconds, then nodded. Not that I trusted him or anything, but he seemed pretty sure of himself. Besides, if he bit a human, that'd give Sam and me leave to kill him. If anything, this vampire obviously had a sense of self-preservation, so I didn't think that he'd do anything to put himself into too much danger.

Mr. Lawrence came in to start class, but I still needed to talk to Jasper about his friends. I watched the teacher carefully then, lowering my voice even more, said, "Who are the other vampires I smell on you?"

His eyes flitted over to me again before returning to his desk. A second passed where he seemed to be debating what to say, then he quietly whispered, "Friends of mine. They won't cause any problems."

Friends of his. Figured. I couldn't really see any of the other Cullens hanging out with human-drinkers. They were all too goody-goody. "Too late for that," I hissed. "I've already run into them, and my little brother was with me. Do you know what would've happened if I had still been human?"

Jasper's entire head turned in my direction, and if it hadn't been him, I would've sworn that I saw concern in his eyes. "Is your brother okay? They were under strict orders not to touch anyone any nearer than Seattle."

"Seth's fine," I hissed back. "I'd just prefer you to tell them to get a move on it. Until they're gone, I've got patrols twelve hours a day."

"You do not have to patrol. Peter and Charlotte won't hurt anyone. I don't mean to cost you any inconvenience, Leah, but they are very good friends-"

"Then why don't you go visit them somewhere else?" I suggested. Normally I wouldn't be quite _that _bitchy, but I was running on zero sleep, and it was basically his fault. "I hardly trust you when you say you won't hurt anyone, and it's pretty clear that you haven't hurt any humans for a long time. But your friends-"

"Can control themselves," he interrupted, starting to get irritated. I could hear his voice rising, still too low for anyone else to understand, but louder nonetheless.

"Forgive me if I have my doubts, but it's my _job _to protect La Push. I'd be a shitty protector if I let my guard down with two murderous leeches stalking the place. They already would have gone for Seth if they didn't decide that a single human wasn't worth taking on a couple angry wolves for."

"And I apologize for that. I promise you that it will not happen again."

"It shouldn't have happened in the first place. Now, tell me, how long are your _friends_ staying with you?"

He shrugged apathetically. Then again, he always looked apathetic, so it wasn't like there was that much change. "They'll be moving on in a few days."

A few days. Good. I could handle that. Even though I would like it much better if they had never come in the first place. Still, it was better than nothing. I would have torn his head off if it had been more than a week.

"Four days at most," I said strictly. "One second longer, and they'll be leaving Washington in an urn."

We stared off. His dark eyes were hard, annoyed. This one clearly didn't like taking orders, but he also apparently wasn't stupid. His eyes narrowed and he nodded. "Very well then. I will make sure they are gone by Thursday evening."

"And tell them to keep away from La Push."

"They know of the Treaty." No, actually they didn't. Seth had to spell it out for them, and even then they weren't going to follow it. I didn't actually say that, though. Their surprise about me being a wolf clearly said that they hadn't spoken to the Cullens before they ran into us.

"_Now _they do," I said bitterly. He didn't say anything because he knew I was right. We stared off for a few moments before Mister Lawrence wrote the assignment on the board. I glared at him one more time, then turned away to start on my homework.

…

Two days later, I was running through my patrols as half-assed as I could get away with when the smell of vampire hit me like a ton of bricks. My senses kicked in, and I worried that it was the two human-drinkers again, but then I took the time to recognize the smell.

Four of the Cullens. The three boys and the blonde bitch. I'd occasionally catch a whiff of them here and there, but never so fresh. They were close. Way too close for comfort, especially if they were hunting.

After a short hesitation, I screeched to a halt and started in the other direction. The Cullens may have been hugging the border, but at least they were on their own side of it. No reason to attack, and it'd be stupid to patrol when vampires were in their 'predator' mode.

I'd just started jogging again when my senses screamed at me to _run._ Moving wasn't an option, however, when a freakishly enormous vampire was standing right in behind me. _Across _the border, might I add.

My duty entitled me to take a shot at him. Common sense said that he was bigger, stronger, and had at least fifty more years of experience than I did. Attacking Emmett Cullen would be stupid. So, because I'm such a genius, I started backpedaling. As if a vampire was a bear who would actually leave you alone if you used slow, careful movements.

Let me tell you this. Emmett Cullen was no bear. The second I started backing away, he was flying towards me. Without a second thought, I dove out of the way, but not quickly enough. His shoulder slammed into mine, and a burning pain erupted throughout my entire left side. The hulking vampire spun to try to get another shot at me, but I rolled out of the way just in time. My side screamed in protest.

Big, pale, and cocky let out a low growl, apparently pissed off at himself for missing me. He thought that he was getting beat by a normal creature of the forest, probably because the moron was too caught up in the hunt to realize that horse-sized wolves were not on the menu.

I growled back, trying to get the human-part of his brain back in control, but all that it did was piss him off. He came at me again, and this time I couldn't force my injured side into moving. My eyes closed in anticipation of another bone-shattering hit. I could feel him coming, too, when suddenly the sound of crashing thunder rang throughout the entire forest.

Side burning and slightly dizzy from pain, I forced myself to my feet and looked around, pretty confused as to why I wasn't lying on the ground, dead. It was a moment before my eyes landed on the two leeches a few yards away from me. Jasper had Emmett pinned to the forest floor, hands around the larger vampire's neck.

My eyes widened.

That bloodsucker just saved me.

What the _hell_?

_"Leah, your patrol is finished. I can… Leah, are you okay?" _

_Now_ the asshole phased. I ignored him. He could feel that I wasn't okay.

Instead of focusing on Sam, I limped over to where Jasper had his brother pinned on the floor. Emmett said something, and the blond vampire freed him. The Incredible Hulk focused on me with dark eyes, but they were apologetic. "Er, sorry. You smell better than normal animals, and I kind of lost focus," he said hesitantly.

Now, I wanted to mentally cuss him out, or maybe to tear him into pieces, but that didn't happen. Firstly, my left side was killing me so tearing him into pieces was out. Secondly, the guy was like a freaking telly-tubby. Dimples, curly black hair, and a little-kid pout. Even I couldn't bitch at him too much, at least not when my side was screaming and my head was spinning.

A growl escaped my throat, but it was weak.

_"You need help," _thought Sam. _"I'll come for you in just a few seconds." _

_"NO!"_

Jasper's eyes focused on me all the sudden, and I could help but get lost in them just a little before everything went black.

JLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJL

I woke up too soon. Dr. Fang was basically feeling me up with hands so cold they burnt, and the stink of vampire stung my nostrils something terrible. Instinct told me to leave, but I was so doped up on morphine that my brain was able to tell my instincts to shove it.

"She's awake again," the redhead said from somewhere in the room. Carlisle quit messing with my side and moved so he could look me in the eye. Several others crowded around me, too. Eddy. The creepy-little pixie. And Sam.

His eyes shone with concern that wasn't his to have. My heart wrenched painfully and I looked away from him, focusing on the pain in my side rather than him. It hurt so much less.

"How do you feel?" asked Carlisle.

That was a dumb question. His freight-train of a son shattered half my bones, and now my ex-boyfriend was hovering around me annoyingly closely. If Sam would just fuck off, things wouldn't be half as bad, but, of course I knew that wasn't going to happen.

And the stupid, dumb, still-in-love part of me didn't want him to go. It wanted him to come closer, to hold my hand, to kiss it all better. My eyes met his. Those brown eyes that I'd looked into dozens of times still shone with love. So much love.

But never enough.

Suddenly I felt very, very sick, and it had nothing to do with the way that my left side felt way too tight and burned way more than it should have burnt.

"No," I told the father vamp. "Definitely not okay."

"Your bones healed too quickly," he said. "That is most of the problem. I will have to re-break them. I was planning on doing it while you were asleep, but your system burns through any medicine I give you much too quickly."

"Can't you just get an IV and keep it flowing?" I asked. Maybe he didn't know what he was doing. I mean, I much rather would have had another doctor. Then again, that probably wasn't possible. My body was so messed up that there weren't any other options.

"It would still be gone within minutes," he said. A scowl crossed my face, and I snorted.

"Then just break the damn bones. Honestly, I've been through worse." Hell, maybe it'd help me forget about Sam for a few extra minutes. That was all I could ask for in life, anymore.

My eyes met the redhead's. He looked disapproving. Right. He could read my mind. A pity that I was too high to think about censoring my thoughts. If the creep was too masochistic to stay out of my head, then he had more problems than I did.

Edward smiled. Of course.

Then Carlisle said, "Very well, then. I do have something that would make it slightly easier for you, though. Jasper, can you come here?"

Footsteps echoed through the room, and I couldn't help but wonder what in the hell Jasper was going to do to help me. My thoughts became rather inappropriate for a few moments before I remembered he wasn't a hot guy. He was a vampire. And then my thoughts switched so that they were a lot less eager. More like the whole 'get him the hell away from me' thing.

Edward smirked.

Mind-reading asshole.

"Jasper can manipulate emotions," explained Carlisle, while Edward and I had a stare-off. "He should be able to dull the pain somewhat."

Manipulate emotions.

My thoughts flew back to the first time I phased, when that unreal wave of calm washed over me before I flipped back to a human. How Sam said that it usually took hours or days. Not me, though. Because Jasper calmed me down. Somehow, the thought didn't surprise me as much as it should have.

Jasper took up the spot by the side of my bed and put a freezing cold hand over mine. Probably to help his power work better. I still couldn't help but flinch slightly. It was like sticking my hand in a snow bank. At first, slightly uncomfortable. Then after a few moments, the feeling increased until it border-lined painful.

Yet, still pleasant, in a very, very strange way.

But mostly cold.

Then the other feelings came. A wave of lethargy that had my eyelids falling, and really, really powerful numbness. Everything began just fading away, and by the time the good doctor went to smash my side in all over again, all that I felt was a light pinching sensation.

Before he did anything else, I faded into unconsciousness.


	5. Thankfulness

When I woke up again, _his _smell drowned out the scent of bleach. Woodsy and spicy and oh so perfect. My hands clenched into fists, and I froze, pretending to still be asleep. _Get him out of here, _I thought waspishly, hoping that the redhead was somewhere in the area.

Edward's smooth chuckle filled the room, and I could feel Sam hop to his feet. Even though he was eerily graceful, he still couldn't manage to be as quiet as the Cullens. "What's going on?" Sam demanded, needing to be in control of the situation.

"Something very, very important, very, very far away," a familiar voice suggested. My head was pounding, my side still burned, and Sam's proximity was physically painful, but hearing Seth's voice still made me want to smile. The kid braved a house of vampires to watch over me, _and _he was defending me against Sam.

God, it was unbelievable how good my brother could be, especially with a sister as fucked up as me.

"Edward," Sam said, ignoring Seth. Maybe he was just an ass to Clearwaters in general. That'd make me feel better. Marginally.

"She's awake, but she wants you to leave," Edward said smoothly.

"You can add an 'I told you so' to that, if you want, Eddie," the Incredible Bulk said. Apparently they'd been trying to keep Sam away. That thought made me oddly happy.

"I need to talk to her," said Sam. "If you were over the Treaty Line-"

He had to be kidding. Really? If they were over the Treaty Line, they were over the fucking Treaty Line. Yes, I was pissed off, but honestly. Attacking them would be seven-on-two odds. No way was I going to start a fight just because Goliath got hungry. I was smart enough to see how much of a waste that was, and I was the one who'd actually gotten attacked.

"What are you going to do? Attack us?" Emmett snorted. It sounded like he was hopeful on that account. Maybe we should attack. I'd love seeing Emmett tear Sam's balls out.

Edward let out a small laugh and said, "I really think that you should leave, Sam. Leah is awake, and she is fine. You've done more than enough."

"If she's fine, then she can come with me," said Sam. "I will not allow her to stay here any longer than necessary."

"She will go when she wants to," said Jasper. I was somewhat surprised to hear his voice. With all the vampires around, I couldn't specifically smell him, but he kind of seemed like the type to ignore the half-dead werewolf laying around in his haunt. "You are not her babysitter."

"I'm her Alpha," said Sam, in a tone that had an unspoken, _And that's the same thing, _tacked onto the end of it. I opened my eyes and sat up, figuring that he'd leave quicker if I talked to him. My ribs were kind of tender, but I felt mostly healed up.

"Sam," I said in a low, dangerous voice. "I would really appreciate it if you would leave now. If it makes you feel better, Seth and I are going to go home real soon anyway."

His brown eyes found mine, and they looked hurt. My hands clenched into fists, not because I was mad at him, but because I was pretty damn pissed at myself for wanting to fall into those eyes and never come out.

Why couldn't I just get over the asshole? He cheated on me and dumped me, and now he orders me around like I'm a child, and I still love him. Even just seeing him standing there, tall and perfect, with those strong cheekbones and amazing lips… God, I wanted to kiss him so badly. I would follow him like a lost little puppy and do everything he told me if I could just get him back, only for a few seconds…

"Come on, Lee-Lee. I don't trust them to keep you safe," said Sam. And… there went my daydreams, replaced by blinding heartbreak and a pretty good dose of anger too. If that creep thought that he could call me Lee-Lee after what he did then he had another thing coming. Besides, who in the hell was he, to say who would and wouldn't keep me safe? In all honesty, I trusted the Cullens more than him in that department. Hell, I'd trust the fucking Volturi more than him.

My vision turned red and my hands started shaking, and I was going to change and tear his throat out, but then Seth hopped out of his seat and marched right up to Sam, his dark eyes so bright that it looked like they were on fire.

"Would you quit treating my sister like a child!" he said angrily. "She is a million times more mature than you'll ever be, and all that you're doing is making yourself look like a big jerk! Can't you open your eyes long enough to see that you're _hurting _her?"

Sam stared at Seth, who was a good half foot shorter than him, in complete shock. It made my day, too, since Seth appeared to be towering over a very small-looking Sam at that moment, too surprised to even be angry. My heart felt like it was going to blow up with pride for my brother, and I sent a happy smirk in Sam's direction.

He glared at the Cullens, spun on his heel, and stopped down the nearby staircase.

Seth, to my complete indignation, came running over to me and threw his arms around my neck, saying, "God, Lee. I swore that you were going to die. Doctor Cullen called and told Mom and Dad what happened, and then he said you'd be okay in a day or two, but I didn't believe him. So I made Dad take me over here to see you, and I've been here ever since. You know, to make sure that the vampires were paying enough attention to you.

"They've been great, though. Jasper even made his friends leave so that they didn't bother either of us, and Emmett has apologized for hurting you a million times, and you should hear Jasper's Civil War stories. Can you believe that he was actually _alive _when Abraham Lincoln was? He said that I can come back and ask him questions when I get into the Civil War in my History class. Carlisle is even cooler! He was born hundreds of years ago, and-"

"Seth," I interrupted, my voice muffled in his chest. "I get the picture."

Even though my voice was annoyed, I couldn't help but be just a tiny bit thankful that the Cullens dealt with him as well as they had. The thought of him spending any time at all with the vampires didn't exactly sit well with me, but I suppose that was probably unfound prejudice. They didn't like me because I was a bitchy werewolf. Seth was a charismatic thirteen-year-old boy with a perma-smile. There was a difference.

"Good," he said, still smiling. "Then you won't mind if I stay a while. Carlisle promised to show me some old pictures, but he won't be back from the hospital for another hour."

"Seth," I protested, sitting up slowly. "I'm tired. You should let me go home and rest."

"You were just asleep for an entire day," he complained. Jasper came over and whispered something to Seth, and he grinned like crazy.

"Yes, that'd be perfect," Seth said, then ran off somewhere. I gave Jasper a very, very concerned look, and he flashed me an easy smile. Unlike the ones he sometimes tried to give at school, he didn't look like he was in pain for this one, and it showed. It was absolutely dazzling, which was exactly why I scowled at him.

No way was I going to turn into some brainless chit and let myself be _dazzled _by any guy, especially not one who was technically a reanimated corpse.

"What did you tell him?" I asked harshly. Jasper shrugged his shoulders.

"Just that he could take an old photo album of mine home," Jasper drawled. It looked like he was actually telling the truth. "You do look like you need rest, and I doubt that you could get very much here."

I stared at him, looking over his dangerous-looking scars, perfect features, yellow eyes. It was a face that absolutely couldn't be trusted, and the wolf part of me was telling myself to go find Seth and make sure he was okay.

The human part of me admitted that I had no reason not to trust Jasper, that he saved my life, and that Seth would come running back into the room any minute with some ancient photo album in his hands, spouting off about how cool it was.

My lips subconsciously curved up into something that could have been a smile.

"You didn't have to do that," I said. My voice was polite, too, for the first time in a very long time. Even Edward looked surprised, and something told me he wasn't surprised by very much. "Really. Thanks."

"You've had it rough," said Jasper. He ran a hand through his mane of hair, and I bit my lip. God, his hair was so beautiful, and I couldn't even blame it on his being a vampire. It would have been just as wild and soft-looking when he was human. A smirk crossed Edward's face and I flashed him a warning look.

_"Say one word, and you'll wind up as a pile of ash." _

He shrugged, obviously not feeling too threatened. Not like I blamed him. It was one on three at the moment. Not very good odds for me.

"No I haven't," I said to Jasper's statement. At least not compared to him I haven't, and I've never been one for self-pity. "You don't need to go out of your way to help me because you feel sorry for me."

"I don't feel sorry for you," Jasper argued, even though I really didn't see the point. He'd basically just said that he did. "I just think…" He shook his head, a cautious look on his face, and Edward looked at him and shook his head fiercely. Whatever Jasper wanted to say, it wasn't going to sit well with me.

"What is it, Blondie?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"She'll blow up if you say it," warned Edward.

"What's he want to say?" Emmett asked.

"I think that you need a little help," Jasper said offhandedly.

My head jerked in his direction, and suddenly all that I wanted to do with his hair was tear it out of his head. "You think what?" I growled, even though I had heard him perfectly the first time.

"That you need help," repeated Jasper smoothly. I let out a low growl, anger coursing through my veins. I did not need help, not with anything. I could take care of myself just fine, and didn't need a stupid vampire to do it for me. "Don't be mad. I don't mean that you are struggling. I simply think that your youth has been ripped away from you too early, and that should not happen to anyone."

I barely heard him. "So what if it has? I'm dealing with it just fine. I have no problem with what happened with Sam, or being a werewolf, or… or anything. I'm not tired, I don't need a rest, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with me."

"I know better than that, Leah," said Jasper with a sad smile on his face.

Seth poked his head into the room just then, a hesitant look on his face. "Er, we can go now, Lee," he said tentatively. Brushing quickly past Jasper, I stalked to the door.

"Good. Now come on, let's go."

I left without a thank you, even though Seth more than made up for it, spewing out his gratefulness even as I more or less dragged him down to the front door. My teeth clenched together at the thought. My baby brother, destined for life as a werewolf, was befriending freaking vampires.

That was just great.

"You didn't have to be so mean," Seth said as I dragged him away from the Cullen's house.

"They deserved it," I said harshly, even though they didn't. "Now turn around. Unless you want to walk home, I have to change." Seth complied, and I quickly phased, then ran us back to our house in La Push. My thoughts were, unfortunately, spinning around the stupid Cullens with a mixture of disgust and gratefulness. In Jasper's case, it was mostly gratefulness.

Damn vampires.


	6. Only a Little Terrible

**Eek, that was a really long time for all you guys to wait. I'm sorry. My older sister lost the use of one of her legs in a car accident, and my whole family kind of dropped everything to help her through it. She's doing better now, and is hoping to be back in school in a week or so, so I'll start up my updates again. **

**Thank you for reviewing this so much throughout the past month or so. They were nice bright spots, and I always loved hearing what you have to say. Thank you so much. **

**Now, just one more reminder. Several people have asked about this, and I've already mentioned it in several author's notes, but Edward is married to Alice, and Jasper is the single one. Basically those two have just switched places. **

**Enjoy the story. **

**JLJLJLJLJLJLJL**

I went back to school that Monday, but the morning was as boring as always. Jasper gave me a pained smile during History, but said nothing. I ignored the curious stares I received in other classes, and tried to force may way through the day.

Then lunch came. Like always, I sat by myself, as far away from everyone else as possible. I was just starting to take a bite of the gelatin-like substance that was supposed to pass as meat when I smelt the vampire.

_"What in the hell are you doing here, Eddy?" _I thought waspishly. The good lord only knew what he would have in store for him if he thought that we were friendly just because his family helped me this weekend.

Edward smirked and opened his mouth to reply, but a flash of black came darting up to us before he could speak.

"Hi, Leah! I thought you were looking very lonely, so I told Edward that we should sit here. You won't cause us any major bodily harm or anything, will you? No? Good. I can't see your future, I already told Sam that, so you should know, but I still have a feeling that we're going to eventually be great, great, friends!"

Then, before I could say anything else, Alice Cullen had plopped herself down beside me with a wide smile on her face. I started to release a low growl, but it died in my throat when another figure appeared across from me.

Jasper gave me a slight smile and hovered around the seat opposite of me, like he actually cared whether or not I wanted him to sit there. I gulped. It wasn't fair, that someone could be so dangerous, so completely ugly and scarred and yet so breathtaking at the same time. God, I hated the asshole.

"Alice wanted to sit with you," Jasper drawled sheepishly as way of explanation. Sheepishly? A two-hundred year old, murdering, blood-drinking walking corpse was being sheepish! It wasn't right.

"Fine," I spat. "Just don't get too close to me. I don't want to spend my lunch inhaling noxious fumes." _"And keep your girlfriend's mouth shut, too," _I added mentally for Edward's benefit.

Jasper grinned, Edward snorted, and Alice remained blissfully ignorant as the other two vampires sat down around us. Silence ensued, at least until the chair on my right side suddenly found itself occupied by a monster of a vampire. A freezing, and I mean freezing, cold arm was tossed around my shoulder, almost like an ice statue had decide to come up and sit by me. I tried to flinch away, but Emmett was too freakishly strong.

"Leah!" Emmett said cheerfully. "You, my scary-werewolf friend, have just made me a hundred dollars. Rose didn't think that you'd let us sit here. She's going to be so happy that I've proved her wrong."

I opened my mouth to ask what in the hell he was talking about, especially when the blonde Barbie slammed her tray down on the table with a venomous glare. It looked like she'd rather be sitting in a lit fireplace. At least someone remembered how things were supposed to be, with vampires and werewolves as far away from each other as physically possible. She glared at me. I glared back.

"I was more or less ambushed," I told Emmett venomously, forcing Jasper's hesitation out of my head. Edward laughed, and I bitingly thought, _"You're taking my thoughts out of context." _He was, too. I thought Jasper was good-looking, and I had a very, very strange obsession with his hair. However, his personality, in my opinion, was virtually nonexistent. And he had the gall to say that I needed help. Which I don't. Never have, never will.

"She isn't as angry as she's letting on," replied Jasper, which prompted me to kick him in the shin. I think it half shattered my foot.

"Of course she's not," Emmett laughed. "She loves us."

Says the guy who wanted to eat me a few days ago. I have no doubt that if I looked up the word 'thick' in the dictionary, Emmett Cullen would be posing for a cocky-ass picture that took up half the page.

"Not quite," said Edward with a smile in his voice. "Don't worry, though. She's really, really close."

As if.

I cut a piece of fatty meat off of my chicken and forced myself to chew it. It was disgusting in the first place, but eating it with the smell of bleach burning my nose didn't improve it much. I put it down. Normally I would have been mad, but honestly, it was probably better that I didn't eat the school food. I didn't have constant patrols anymore, not since Jasper's friends had left, so the extra calories weren't super-important anyway.

"I have class soon," I announced. "I'm leaving."

"Leah," whined Emmett. "I just got here."

"You haven't eaten anything," Alice said sweetly. "Don't you need to eat?"

"This," I said, holding up the chicken with my fork, "is not food. I'll grab something when I get home."

Alice looked concerned. "Are you going to be okay?"

_"No, I'm going to starve because I missed lunch."_ Stupid vampires. It was like they were out of some cheap-ass Lifetime show. Perfect family, unrealistically handsome doctor father, sickeningly motherly mother, and a bunch of kids, all of them pretty, and all of them fitting into neat little stereotypes.

Plastic-surgery blonde, piano-playing philosophical nerd (Anyone read Pride and Prejudice? I think I've found a Mary clone), big buff jock, and a cute, innocent peppy-type. All of them nice, friendly, and happy.

Well, and then there was Jasper.

"I'm fine," I said emphatically,

"Mary?" Edward asked, looking discontented.

"Yes," I said. "Pretty much exactly like Mary. Now, if you would please, I have to go."

Then I got up and left. Presto, chango, leavo.

Thankfully, none of the vamps followed me.

JLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJLJL

Unfortunately, someone knocked on my apartment door when I was eating later that night. My dad and I exchanged a look. We weren't exactly popular in town. I'd even heard some people warn their friends to stay away from the 'crazy Natives', or mentioning that we 'came over from the Rez to invade Forks'.

That meant it probably wasn't any of our next door neighbors. I was about to get up to check and see who it was, but then I smelt just a hint of _him_.

Beautiful, sweet, woodsy… the best smell ever.

My heart did a little tha-rump, and I swallowed, hard.

My dad's eyes narrowed. "It's _him_, isn't it?"

"Yes," I said darkly. "It's him." Then, louder, I said, "Come in. I know you wouldn't listen if I told you to go screw off."

Sam opened the door. He didn't have a shirt on, because he's an ass like that, and I could see more of his perfectly toned body than I really wanted to. I focused on my bowl of Cocoa Puffs.

"Calm down, Leah. It's a pack emergency. I need your help."

"Pack emergency," I scoffed. "There's no pack. It's just us, and I know for a fact that, unless there's a vampire running wild, you cannot possibly need my help with-"

"It's not just us. Not anymore."

I stared at him, wondering what he was saying, then cursed loudly. My dad gave me a disapproving look, but I ignored it.

"Let me guess. Someone else phased?"

"Jared Cameron," Sam said. I looked up, and for the first time, I noticed how tired he looked. Weariness was etched into every line of his face. He'd had a rough day.

A surge of pity rose up in my chest, but I forced it back down. I wasn't one of those happy-go-lucky Cullens who could be nice to anyone who crossed their paths. I _couldn't _afford to be like that, not anymore. I had too much crap to deal with myself; I would develop a complex if I decided to be nice and help everyone else with their own shit.

"Let's see," I said. "Jared. Egotistical, can't take a thing seriously, failing half his classes Jared?" The handsome junior with a disarming smirk flashed through my head, and I glared at the mental image. He'd been one of my old 'friends', back when I was popular and had Sam. After Sam and I broke up, he ditched me, like everyone else, no doubt thinking that I was a crazy bitch, just like the rest of the rez

"He's part of the pack now, Leah," Sam said in an annoyingly condescending voice, like he was older and wiser than me. My hands curled into fists. "You have to treat him like it."

"So argue with him, be a condescending, control-hungry freak, and act like a total asshole in general? Because that's pretty much the example of pack behavior that you've given me."

My dad smiled into his food.

"Leah," said Sam. "I've been dealing with him all day, and he hasn't phased back yet. Once. Right now, I've got him waiting in the forest outside of Forks. _Please_, try to help him for just a couple of hours so that I can get some rest."

Then he gave me the puppy dog eyes, and, because I'm a complete sucker, I inhaled the rest of my supper, hopped to my feet, and followed him out the door.

Sam pointed me in the general direction of Jared, then ran off, probably because hostility had to be coming off of me in waves. I jogged into the forest, ditched my clothes, and shifted.

Immediately, I was met with the thought, "_I cannot believe Leah has to be the Beta. This is going to be hard enough without a crazy traitorous bitch bossing me around-" _

_"Nice to talk to you again too, Jared," _I thought bitterly, not really having it in me to blame the guy for thinking that way. I mean, really, he was pretty much right. I wasn't going to be a joy to be around.

Jared jumped a little when he saw me in his head, but recovered quickly, stumbling over mental apologies that were almost a little sincere. I assured him that I wasn't going to murder him or anything, then jogged forward until I met him in a little clearing.

He was big, with chocolate-colored fur, and bright brown eyes that were a lot less haunted than Sam's. There was the same pranksterish look about his wolf face as there was to his human one, with his eyes glinting mischievously, and his thin lips somehow managing to find their way into a crazy kind of wolf-smirk, which I would have thought impossible if I hadn't been able to see it.

_"So, you've been like this all day, huh?" _I thought. He shrugged his giant shoulders.

_"Pretty much, yeah. I almost ate my mother's head off first, but…" _

_"Shitty for you. At least when I changed, I was going after a vamp." _

_"Let me guess, a Cullen? I'm pretty sure that any other one would have killed you." _

_"Nice to know that you have confidence in me." _

_"Motivating people. It's what I do." _

We fell silent. His thoughts switched over to his mother, and his life, and how he wasn't going to be able to play basketball either of his last two years of high school, how his scholarship offers meant nothing anymore, and how he was going to have to spend his whole life rotting away in La Push.

I pretty much ignored him. Self-pity is annoying as hell. I'd always believed that sucking it up, forcing your stupid brain to accept that things suck and aren't going to get any better, and ignoring all of life's crappiness, are the three primary steps to dealing with shit.

Jared hadn't learned that yet, but, being a wolf and all, I was sure that he'd figure it out soon enough.

While Jared thought, I paced, then started running around the general area. After a while, I tried to prompt him into a race, but apparently Sam had told him that being still and focusing on his human self would help him phase back quicker.

_"Screw Sam," _I thought bitterly. Jared mentally laughed.

_"Isn't that what you want to do?" _

I growled at him and continued sprinting, back and forth, back and forth.

After a while, I planted my butt at the top of one of the hills and watched the sun begin to set. That was when he found me.

_"What are _you _doing here?" _

Eddy shrugged lightly. His face glittered in the sun that peeked through the clouds, almost like he was made out of diamonds. I shook my head. It was like he was literally a moving statue. Completely unnatural.

_"Do you need help?" _thought Jared.

_"I'm good. He's a Cullen. He won't hurt me." _

"Am I hearing things, or did you just admit to trusting my family?"

_"I do not trust your family. I am just not as wary of you as I once was." _

His smirk told me that he thought differently. In the background, I could feel Jared's interest fading, until he once again became more raptured in his own thoughts and worries than what I was doing.

Good. Didn't want him to get back to Sammy about me having a conversation with a big scary vampire.

"I see that you have a new recruit," said Edward. I scrunched up my wolf nose.

_"Recruit? I'd call it an annoyance. He's one of Sam's old friends, so I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be outvoted in everything from now on." _

"Well, if you need help, you know where we all live. I'm sure that Emmett and Alice would be more than thrilled to help you. Well, and I would, too, of course."

Jasper popped into my head, and I couldn't help but wonder why Edward left him out, which, of course, prompted an infuriating smirk to appear on Eddy's face.

"He wouldn't mind either," said Edward, sounding like he knew way more than was good for him, which was, of course, true. I growled.

_"I don't need help. I've told all of you that a dozen times, so it does not matter who is willing or not _to _help me." _

Edward held his hands up innocently, a smirk on his handsome face. "Of course, of course. I was just being rhetorical."

_"Shut up." _

He ignored me.

"Esme asked what was going on between you and Sam, not trying to be snoopy, but she's concerned about things like that. Emmett and Alice took turns blabbing everything. Now my mother thinks that you're a poor little lamb hanging onto life by a thread, and she happens to want you over for dinner."

I stared at him incredulously.

Vampy boy quickly corrected, "I mean, for you to have dinner. _We _wouldn't eat. Besides, Alice says that you don't get much good food, anyway."

_"How in the fucking hell does Alice know that?" _

"She watches you sometimes."

Good lord. That entire family needed counseling, I swear. Edward for not minding his own damn business, Emmett for… being Emmett, Rosalie to get rid of her psychopathic personality, and Alice for being a creepy stalker. Then Jasper because, well, he was practically emo. Not the depressed part, but the whole 'in touch with his feelings' thing.

"That was weak," Edward laughed.

I scowled.

"So, about supper?"

My first instinct was to say no. I mean, really, I shouldn't have even had to think about it. Going to gnaw on a steak with a houseful of vampires? No way. Then I got to thinking, and I realized that my dad's most complicated meals consist of a can opener and a pot. Eating something that was actually good would be a nice change. Well, and, it would piss off Sam, which was an enormous plus.

And… maybe the vampires were growing on me, just a little bit.

"Bring Seth," said Edward. "Maybe Carlisle could finally show him those pictures."

My resolve cracked when I pictured my little brother's beaming face.

_"Fine. When?"_

"Tomorrow. Would six thirty work?"

I was supposed to patrol at six thirty, but I nodded anyway. Jared could cover for me. The Probie had to make himself useful somehow.

_"Six thirty would be great." _

Then I felt Sam enter my head, and quickly ran away from Edward, blocking off all thoughts of him, and focusing on my feet. I changed back as soon as possible so Sam wouldn't learn of my plans and order me not to go.


	7. Dinner With the Cullens

**There. That was a nice, early update. Hopefully that makes up for taking so long before. Thank you all so much ****for sticking with this story even after my really long break. I really loved all of your reviews. Now, enjoy the chapter. **

**JLJLJLJLJLJLJL**

I had no idea why, but I felt like I had to bring out some of the old Leah for my trip to the Cullens. It had nothing to do with _them_, of course, but more with the fact that I was going to that big fancy house of theirs, and wearing tattered cotton shorts and an old tank-top didn't seem appropriate.

Obviously.

Anyhow, I might have taken the time to straighten what little hair that I had, and I may have cared enough to put on a little mascara and some eye-liner. _Maybe _I swapped my old cut-offs with my only non-holy jeans, and there is a tiny chance that I wore an emerald green thermal even though the close-fitting fabric made me feel a little bit fidgety.

Like I said, their _house _was so intimidating that I felt like I had to look at least a little bit nice. The Lord knows that I wouldn't have done half as much for the vampires themselves, especially not for any one of them specifically. Besides, when Seth arrived at the apartment at about six, he was wearing a polo and he'd combed his hair, so I wasn't the only one trying to look nice.

"What?" I asked when I saw him. "Have a crush on Rosalie?"

"Mom made me," he said back, grinning. "However, something tells me that Dad didn't come into your room and order you to look nice for the vampires."

"Don't even think about it, Seth," I muttered. With one more glare in my brother's direction, I grabbed the car keys off the counter, gave my dad a quick hug, and started out the door.

"Be careful!" our dad cried. "And don't forget to watch out for Seth!"

"Will do," I said back over my shoulder, ignoring Seth's protests that he wasn't a child and didn't need to be watched.

"But they're friendly," he complained when I gave him a look that told him to shut it.

"At least until you cut your hand open with a steak knife," I said grimly. "You _will_ have to be careful. Especially around Jasper. He's not as strong as the other ones."

Grinning, Seth said, "Oh, don't worry about Jasper." He hopped into the car, shutting his mouth just long enough for me to slide into the driver's side before continuing, "I think that he likes you, and he has to know that killing me wouldn't put him high on your 'eligible guys' list."

"Seth?" I asked.

"Yeah?" he said, completely unconcerned.

"Can I ask you _why _you say that Jasper _likes _me?"

"Oh, yeah," said Seth, smiling a little. "I thanked him for taking care of you, and he smiled a little and said that you were a 'lovely lady', and that it was his pleasure."

I shook my head at my ridiculous brother. "You do realize that he comes from a time back when saying that stuff was pretty much required? He hates me, I'm pretty sure of it."

"No he doesn't," said Seth. "You didn't see the look on his face when he was talking about you. Besides, right afterwards, I asked him if he thought you were pretty, and he didn't answer me."

"Seth," I groaned, tempted to bang my head against the steering wheel. "You _have _to learn how to keep your mouth shut. You don't just ask people things like that."

"I'm just trying to help," he said with his usual smile. I growled under my breath, but the kid honestly had the most potent grin on the face of the earth. Within seconds, my little bout of anger had completely evaporated.

"Yeah," I said. "I know. But you should also mind your own business. Even if I was over Sam, which I won't even pretend that I am, _Jasper _would be the absolute worst choice for me possible. He's a reanimated corpse who eats my animal friends. Even if he had an actual personality, I would never even think about touching him."

"Okay," Seth said, seeming to believe me. "I just figured that it'd work out pretty well, you know. He isn't scared of you like most guys, which already puts him above almost everyone else."

"He's not scared of me because he's a practically invincible vampire," I replied, turning onto the road that I _thought _led to the Cullen's house. "Now, enough talking about them. They'll be able to hear any second now, and I do not want this conversation leaving the car."

_Of course, I'm sure Edward will catch wind of it somehow, _I thought with a grimace. Then again, Edward was good with keeping my thoughts private. He knew that I'd tear his face off if he didn't.

"Fine, fine," Seth said. "I still think that you should at least consider-"

"_Seth_."

He shut his mouth. Not long after, I pulled out of the jungle of trees and into the clearing that held the Cullen's enormous house. I hadn't even stopped the car when Alice was sprinting out the door.

"Good God, help me," I muttered, looking towards the sky in an impromptu prayer. Unfortunately, not even divine forces could stop Alice Cullen when she was wound up.

I got out of the vehicle, because I knew that I'd have to eventually, and the little chit wrapped me up in an annoyingly enormous hug.

"That _hurts_," I hissed. "You're freezing cold."

"Oh, you'll get used to it eventually," she laughed. Then she dashed around the car and pretty much body-slammed Seth, who chuckled and actually hugged her back for a second before backing away awkwardly.

"Now come in Seth, Leah. We're all so excited to have you here! We haven't had company in ages, and Esme is excited to see what you think of her cooking. She hasn't made any real food in more than seventy years!"

Despite all my experience with these guys, comments like that still freaked me out. A lot.

"Well, we can't wait to try it," Seth said, because he always knew what to say. Alice's smile, somehow, got bigger, and then she bounced into the house, Seth and I trailing after her.

Right off the front door was the Cullen's big family room, where I could see Emmett and Edward playing what looked like a pretty intense game of Madden. Behind them, Jasper was sitting at a little table with the Blonde Bitch, both of them staring at a chessboard with so much concentration that I was surprised it didn't shatter. Edward looked up at our entrance and waved at me, then cursed when Emmett's guy absolutely killed Tom Brady.

Jasper whispered something to Rosalie, something I couldn't quite hear, then moved one more piece, announced, "Checkmate", and hopped to his feet with a kind of leonine grace that was actually kind of terrifying.

"Come on, I'll take you to the kitchen so I can officially introduce you to Carlisle and Esme. You really didn't see them the last time you were here," Alice chirped to me, tugging me away from the family room. I followed after her like I didn't notice Jasper skulking along behind us.

After a moment, we walked into a kitchen that was pointlessly big for a family that didn't eat anything. The woman that I remembered as Esme was stirring spaghetti over a fancy stove, and Dr. Fang was leaning back against the counter, talking to his wife as she cooked.

They both stopped what they were doing and smiled when Alice herded us into the room.

"Ah, Seth, it's so nice to have you in our home again," Esme said, bustling over to us to give my brother a big hug. Like she could tell I didn't want to touch her, she hovered back and smiled at me. "And Leah, it's wonderful to really meet you. My children have all told me so much about you, and it is so nice to see you under improved circumstances."

"Er, thanks," I said, really not having expected _quite _that warm of a welcome.

"I agree. It is very nice to welcome you into our home. As Esme said, we have heard so much. Edward is especially fond of you," Carlisle said. "He finds your unique thoughts refreshing."

"_Nice to know that you use me for your own personal entertainment, Eddy," _I thought with an almost-smile on my face.

"No problem, Leah," Edward called from the other room.

I almost laughed, then caught myself when I realized that I was actually bantering with a vampire.

How disgusting.

"Thank you," I told Carlisle. Then, because I did know how to be polite when circumstances required it, I turned to Esme and said, "And that spaghetti smells absolutely delicious. I love my dad, but he can't cook at all. It'll be nice to eat something good for once."

Esme beamed like I'd just made her hundred plus years of life completely worthwhile.

"Oh, thank you so much, Leah. I hope that you like it. It should be finished in a half hour or so. Until then, I'm sure that Alice or Rosalie would love to-"

"Mom," Jasper interrupted. I turned to see that he was hovering right inside the kitchen, leaning back against the edge of the door. "I don't think that Leah wants to be made into one of Alice's playthings."

"Jaaazz," Alice pouted, sticking out her bottom lip. "I would not make her into a plaything. I would just do her makeup and make her beautiful."

"Er, I'm sorry, but-" I started. Thankfully, Emmett came to my rescue.

"Don't even think about it, Alice! She's playing video games with us!" he shouted, most likely still from his position on the couch. "Seth, too!"

"But Mo-om!" whined Alice.

"Let Leah play with the guys," Esme said sternly. "Maybe she'll let you work on her makeup after supper. Carlisle was planning on showing Seth his paintings then, anyway."

"Yay!" Alice chirped, then gracefully danced her way back into the family room. Jasper hung back, waiting to escort us.

"You'll get used to it eventually," drawled Jasper. He mussed up his hair a little. "Or, at least kind of. I don't think anyone ever gets completely used to Alice."

Seth and I both laughed, and Seth shot me an 'Isn't he awesome?' face that had me swatting him on the back of the head. Jasper turned around to give me a curious look, but I just snorted and muttered, still loud enough for Seth to hear, "He's not people-trained yet."

"Hey!" Seth protested. I ignored him and continued into the family room.

The moment we were through the door, Emmett started going wild, patting the place on the couch next to him and saying, "Come on, Lee, I want you on my team. You look like a Madden God."

"No thanks," I said, plopping down next to Eddy. "I'd rather be on the team with the guy who can intercept plays. Seth, you can be on Emmett's team." I grabbed a controler and started to select my team, but then I realized something.

I turned around to see Jasper heading back to the chessboard, where Rosalie was waiting impatiently.

"Don't you want to play?" I asked him.

"No, not Jasper!" Emmett whined. "He wins every time."

"It's the military strategist in him," Edward explained.

"I'm fine," drawled Jasper. "Winning all the time gets boring, anyway."

Biting my lip, I looked from Rosalie to Edward and back again. Edward shook his head at me, scrunching his face up like my idea stank so bad that he could smell it.

"Honestly, if you're that good, you can play. I wouldn't mind playing chess with Rosalie." Blond and Bitchy got up and walked off. I shrugged. "Or I'll just watch. I need some entertainment."

Jasper still hesitated.

"Leah. Do. Not. Let. Him. Play," said Emmett.

"Please? Just to piss Emmett off?" I asked.

The blond sighed, but he was smiling. "Fine. Anything to make Emmett mad," he said, hopping easily over the couch. Before I could really comprehend what he was doing, he wedged himself in between me and Eddy, then stared straight at the TV like he didn't think his behavior was strange at all.

Not strange? As if. I had a big, tall, scary vampire sitting right next to me, so close that his cold was literally seeping into my side, and he wasn't even looking at me.

_"Edward," _I thought. _"Tell your brother to move." _

Because he was making me very, very uncomfortable. Like stomach twisting, hands sweating, trouble focusing uncomfortable.

And he stank. Bad. I mean, maybe being close to a guy built like Jasper Hale wasn't absolutely horrible, but between the cold and the stink, it was enough to keep me from getting too many butterflies.

The thing was, though, I actually did feel a tiny bit nervous, which was _huge_. It had been over two years since I had felt _anything _for a guy other than Sam, and Jasper, a vampire who I didn't even really know, was making me feel just a tiny little bit of something that was actually kind of nice.

Not good. At all. Especially not when he could probably feel exactly what I was feeling thanks to his stupid little ability.

After a bit, I got over the fact that Jasper was _right there_, and actually looked up at the screen. I know for a fact that I hadn't zoned out for more than a minute or two, and Jasper and Edward were already up by two scores.

"Hey," I said, slapping Jasper's arm. "Go easy on my brother."

"I'm doing fine," Seth said, grinning from over by Emmett. "It's this idiot who can't play to save his life."

I turned my attention to the screen just in time to see Emmett select a field-goal block when Edward and Jasper had a first and ten.

"I thought vampires were supposed to be smart," I told Emmett, shaking my head at the screen.

"We are," said Emmett, making a face when Tom Brady threw a nice little screen to Julian Edelman. Jasper toggled the receiver so that he missed one tackle, and then his guy pranced into the end-zone. Emmett said a word that shouldn't have been said in front of my brother, and I glared at him. "Sorry," he apologized. "But really. I just like playing the real-man's version of football."

"Or the dumb-man's version of football," said Jasper, shifting slightly so that the back of his cool hand rested against my bare forearm. I shivered and pulled back, and, once again, Jasper didn't seem to notice at all. It was like he was having twice the effect on me that I was having on him.

Narrowing my eyes slightly, I made sure to focus intently on the game, which wound up being a fifty point blowout, until Esme told Seth and I that supper was ready.

Now, let me tell you, eating with a half dozen vampires (Rosalie refused to reappear) watching me was a little strange. Seth didn't seem to mind at all, but I, for once, felt like I had to take little girly bites to avoid looking like an absolute pig. I mean, I really shouldn't have minded, given that these guys tackled animals and sucked blood out of their furry little necks, but still. They were all so elegant and proper that it _was_ awkward.

"So," said Edward, probably getting the gist of my thoughts and wanting to distract me. "How's Jared doing?"

"Well, he wasn't happy that I ordered him to patrol for me tonight," I commented with a shrug. "He was less happy when I ducked on over here before he could tell Sam where I was going. Other than that, he's not terrible. A little too pro-Sam, but hell, it's better than being alone with Alpha Uley."

"Are you not supposed to be here?" asked Jasper, his voice kind of guarded.

I shrugged. "I don't know for sure. I just figured that it would be better not to ask, though. Sam really, really doesn't like you, and I didn't want to be ordered not to come."

"He would do that?" asked Esme, like she was surprised to figure out that someone could actually be that terrible. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. It figured, that she'd be one of those people who could only see the good in everyone.

"Of course," Seth said. "He thinks he's so perfect…" he shook his head. "I can't wait until I phase. Then Leah and I, because we have awesome blood, can gang up on him and take over."

"Seth," I said quickly, not liking that he was so excited for something so… not fun, even if his intentions were really sweet. "You don't want to phase _yet_. Just calm down for now. I can deal with Sam on my own."

"You could deal with him better if you'd ever get over him," Seth said back. The table got really quiet for a moment, but I smiled like I didn't hear him.

"So? Seth says you've all got some pretty sweet vampire stories to impart. Anyone care to share?"

After that, the Cullen family kind of fell into story time. Alice went first, probably because her story was the shortest, given the whole no-memory thing. Then Emmett went, getting sickeningly sweet about Rosalie at the end, even though his story was kind of tragic. It helped me to see him as more than the big teddy-bear of the family, anyway. Then Carlisle went, and his was, by far, the most interesting. I mean, vampires disgust me, but knowing that he had _never _eaten a human was pretty sweet.

I wanted to hear the others' stories, too, especially Jasper and Edward's, but Esme shook her head and said that the rest were too tragic for dinner-time conversation. She then perked up and asked Seth and me how our food had been.

I, honestly, told her that it was the most delicious thing I'd had in weeks, which prompted another one of those smiles that made it look like I'd just made her afterlife. After that, well, Alice got me.

"I'm too skinny to have any clothes for you, but you've got to be pretty close to Rose's size. She won't mind if we borrow some of her stuff-"

"I don't need clothes," I said, trying to tear my hand away from her rock-solid grip. It didn't work. She held on tighter, dragging me away from the others with a little more force than before. "I get nice clothes, and I bust out of them. Werewolves don't get pretty wardrobes, Tink."

Alice scrunched her face, but I wasn't sure if it was at my statement or my nickname. Probably a little of both.

"Alright… um, what about makeup?"

"I phase, the makeup stays on my wolf face. Not pretty."

"Then what _can _I do with you?" she complained. I shrugged, holding out a strand of my two-inch long hair.

"Style my hair?"

"No," Alice said, shaking her head. "Even I can't help _that_. What did you do? Cut it off with kitchen shears?"

"Well, yeah," I said.

"Disgraceful!" said Alice. "Absolutely disgraceful! Well… no matter if you burst out of them or not, we'll get you some of Rose's clothes, seeing as we can't do anything else. I swear…"

Alice continued blabbing on, and I ducked into the first room I could find, hoping that she'd keep walking without noticing. Thankfully, that's what happened.

Unthankfully, the room I ducked in happened to be occupied.

Jasper sat sprawled out on an over-stuffed chair, his body facing towards one of the big windows that lined his wall, but his face turned in my direction.

"Er, whoops," I said quickly. "I didn't know this was your room. I was just trying to hide from Alice."

And now, because of my stupid spontaneous actions, I was alone with Jasper. How perfect.


	8. A Fairytale

Unthankfully, the room I ducked in happened to be occupied.

Jasper sat sprawled out on an over-stuffed chair, his body facing towards one of the big windows that lined his wall, but his face turned in my direction.

"Er, shit," I said quickly. "I didn't know this was your room. I was just trying to hide from Alice."

And now, because of my stupid spontaneous actions, I was alone with Jasper. How perfect.

Blood rushed to my cheeks.

"You don't have to be so distressed about stumblin' in here," Jasper drawled. "I'm not going to kidnap you."

"That's not-" I started, then stopped, realizing that I couldn't exactly say I didn't want to be here with him because my brain tended to get fuzzy when he was too close. That would sound _terrible._After a second's hesitation, I settled on saying, "I don't want to go. That is, unless you mind."

"No," said Jasper, looking at me strangely. "That's fine. Come, have a seat."

At his invitation, I wandered further into the room, letting my eyes take in the space as I walked. There was no bed, obviously, but he did have a couple thick chairs facing out towards the forests that surrounded the house. Two of his walls were covered with bookshelves, with a couple expensive-looking guitars hanging on the second one, and the last one being completely made up of windows.

"Er, nice room," I said, kind of awkwardly. Without looking directly at Jasper, I took a seat in the open chair. He laughed, low and deep and just a little bit rough, but beautiful at the same time.

"Thank you, ma'am," said Jasper, ducking his head a little. I got the impression that he would have tipped his hat if he'd been wearing one. "I'm glad that you like it. You did enjoy dinner, too, right?"

I held back a smile. "Yeah, I did. Esme is a surprisingly good cook for someone who doesn't eat. Then again, it seems like you vampires are pretty much good at everything."

Chuckling, Jasper shook his head and corrected, "Nah. It just looks like that sometimes. We all have our faults, though, like everyone else." Like something came to him, he shook his head and sadly said, "Honestly, it's more of a curse than a gift. Every day, I think about how, if I could, I'd give away all the strength and speed to get my soul back."

Now that was a surprise. Jasper seemed like that kind of person who didn't tell anyone anything, and well, I kind of felt a little flabbergasted that he'd trust me with that kind of information, especially since it seemed to be right from the heart.

"You honestly think that you lost your soul, then?" I asked softly, hating how gentle I sounded, but glad that I didn't have it in me to kick him while he was down.

"I know that I've lost my soul," said Jasper. He looked right at me with unbelievably warm golden eyes. He must have honestly stuffed himself in anticipation of this meal. The sappy, almost nonexistent part of my head thought, _how sweet. _The other part reminded me that killing a bunch of forest animals wasn't sweet, no matter what. "But it's not because I'm a vampire."

"What do you mean?" I asked, because what he said made no sense at all.

"My family… they're all good people, vampires, whatever. I don't see how they couldn't still have their souls, how they couldn't be _whole. _None of them chose this lifestyle, and all of them have tried to make the best of their choices."

Eyeing the scars, seeing the far-off look in his eyes, I hesitantly asked, "And you?"

Jasper looked down and shook his head.

"Maybe later, when we've gotten to know each other better. You still don't like me, and I don't want to drive you away any further. It's… not a happy story, though."

"Jasper?" I asked, looking at him worriedly. His voice sounded really, really sad, and I couldn't help but be just a little bit concerned.

"I'm fine," Jasper said, even though he didn't look it.

"Are you sure?" Seemingly against my will, I found myself kind angling myself towards him. "Because I don't think you'll drive me away, honestly. I mean, I don't not like you, like you seem to think, and I know that you've had a pretty bad past, so…"

"I might tell you later," Jasper said, giving me a really funny look. "Tonight is supposed to be fun for you and Seth, so I'll hold off for a little while. Why don't we do something else? I take it that you're hiding from Alice?"

"Er, yeah," I said, glancing in the direction of the door. "And I'm kind of surprised that she hasn't burst in here and dragged me out against my will."

Jasper shrugged, looking at me sheepishly again. I decided that it was my favorite look on him. It made him look like such an innocent gentleman that my heart wanted to melt. I mean, he was positively _adorable_, and even I couldn't come up with any excuse to explain that away.

"That might be intentional," he said, kind of evasively. That's when I realized that Seth was part of a much larger conspiracy. I narrowed my eyes as I thought of smiling little Alice dragging my brother off into a corner and whispering stories of a future with Jasper and I holding hands and dancing through meadows.

"Well," I said, deciding not to embarrass either of us more than we needed to be embarrassed. "We might as well make the most of that time, then. You've got about a million books in here. Any chance I could look at some of them?"

This goofy smile crossed Jasper's face then, and I this huge wave of joy swept through my stomach, like I knew I'd said the absolute perfect thing. It was the same feeling that I got when I got Sam to kiss me for the first time.

Ugly pain stabbed my heart like an old, rusted knife at the memory, twisting and turning as I unwillingly relived the memory.

It had been Sam's senior year, and his last ever basketball game. We hadn't even been going out, but we were definitely heading that way. Ever since we'd worked together on the annual school play towards the beginning of the year, we had been inseparable.

Anyway, he'd had an absolutely huge game, scoring thirty six points, and sinking the game winning shot. Like everyone else, I ran out onto the court and straight into his arms. We looked at each other awkwardly for a second, like we wanted to do more than just hug, but were both scared that the other would freak out if that happened.

Then I'd grinned, back when I was confident like that, and teased, "I think you just proved yourself worthy enough to date the great Leah Clearwater", like he was the sophomore and I was the senior. Sam knew that I was kidding though, and he got this blinding grin on his face, then swooped down and kissed me, right there in front of everyone, and I still think it was the best kiss that I've ever had, from him or anybody else.

How, I wondered, could I get that _exact same feeling_, from a Jasper smile?

"Leah?" asked Jasper. I blinked, realizing that I was half-standing, ready to get out of my seat, but still kind of sitting down. "What's wrong?"

Standing up fully and holding my head high, I looked him in the eye and said, "Nothing."

Jasper, without even blinking, replied, "It's Sam."

"It's always Sam," I answered.

Then he did what I thought was the strangest thing ever, and stepped forward and took my feverishly hot hands in his freezing cold ones. For a second I wondered what he was doing, but then he closed his eyes and the pain went away.

I wanted to be angry, wanted to snap that I was just fine taking care of myself, but then I settled down just long enough to feel what it was like to not hurt. He wasn't even making me happy, just taking away what Sam did, and it was so perfect that I let myself smile. It wasn't a smirk, or a two second curving of the lips, but a real, honest-to-god smile, and I think that even Jasper was surprised.

"Thank you," I said, really meaning it. My grip on his hands tightened, and I realized that it wasn't so bad, making contact with his icy skin. I couldn't really feel any kind of temperature anymore, and being able to take notice of any kind of difference, once I looked past the initial numbing cold, was refreshing.

More than that, though, with Jasper so close and the pain from Sam gone, I almost felt safe.

Then Jasper stepped back, and I, sounding strangely content, murmured, "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure, ma'am," he said in a voice that pretty much made me want to melt. Then, like he just remembered he was going to show me his books, he moved closer to the shelves. "Do you read much?" he asked as I followed him.

I shrugged.

"No, not really. I never used to at all, but after Sam left I got into using them to take my mind off of him." I wanted to stop right there, to not say anymore, but somehow I found myself continuing, "For the first couple months, I'd actually sit and page through sappy romance novels, trying to convince myself that crap like that could actually happen in real life. Isn't that pathetic?"

Jasper, standing real close to me, ignored my question and gently asked, "Don't you think you could ever imprint, Leah? Then wouldn't all of those things come true?"

Now, I'd thought about that. When I first learned about the whole imprinting thing from Sam, I wondered and wondered if something like that would ever happen to me. Then Sam mentioned that imprinting wasn't about love, it was about making strong little wolf puppies. Even my dad agreed.

That brought up the question; Why Emily and not me? My genes were a million times better than hers, so if that whole thing was true, then it should have been me that Sam picked.

Then, of course, I came to realize that not aging meant _not aging_. My body was stuck. Sam didn't imprint on me because I _couldn't _have any little wolf-pups, and I wasn't going to imprint on anyone else for the exact same reason.

"Imprinting would take away my free will," I said snappishly. Then, when I saw Jasper start to apologize, I also added, "And... I don't think I can."

His vampire smarts must have kicked in then, thankfully, because he dropped the subject after that.

"Sorry." Then, more hesitantly, "I'm sure that you'll get your fairytale ending sometime."

"Haven't you heard, Jazzy?" I asked, smiling ruefully. "The wolves are always the bad guys. A fairytale ending for a werewolf is usually as a pelt on Little Red Riding Hood's floor."

Jasper reached forward and pulled out a book. It was an expensive illustrated edition of a fairytale book from about a million years ago. The yellowed paper crinkled when he moved it.

"I know a story that you would do good to read," Jasper said as he smoothly paged through the book. When I stood on my tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, I saw that someone had drawn in a picture of a fierce bear with a handsome prince kneeling in front of it. _Bearskin _was written in fancy letters across the top of the page.

"What in the hell is this?" I asked sharply.

"A Fairy Tale," Jasper said, nudging me with the book like it would goad me into reading.

"No," I said. "This is stupid, and pointless, and completely-"

"Why don't I just tell you the story instead?" Jasper interrupted. I opened my mouth to refuse, then saw the pleading look in his golden eyes and sighed in defeat.

"Fine. Go ahead."

Jasper shut the book and slid it back onto the shelf. Then, scooting just a tiny bit closer to me, so that it felt like I was standing next to an air conditioner, Jasper started telling his story.

"A long time ago, a king and a queen had a beautiful daughter, whom they loved very much," he began, his voice so smooth and compelling that my annoyance faded instantly. "She was their only child, and they loved and cared for her more than anything. Then, one day, the evil king of the ogres heard about this beautiful girl.

"Deciding that he wished to have this girl's beauty to himself, the ogre king threatened to destroy the kingdom unless the king gave him his daughter. The king had no choice but to accept, and before long, the ogre came to take the girl away.

"As would be expected, the two had a long way to travel, and the princess needed to rest within a few hours. The ogre left her in a cave so that he could go hunting, and the princess, exhausted from distress, fell into a deep sleep."

Jasper had been gracefully ambling around the room, moving his hands in time with his words and letting his voice get gradually softer, until he was breathing more than speaking. My heart wasn't beating quite right, and I prayed that he was too caught up in his story to notice.

"While the princess was sleeping," he continued, "her fairy godmother sewed her into a bearskin, and the princess was transformed into a she-bear. Of course, the beautiful girl was distressed, but her wonderful speed gave her the means through which to _escape_. She ran from the cave and swam through a deep blue ocean until she reached another kingdom.

"There, the prince of the kingdom found her while he was hunting. Her gentle behavior prevented him from killing her, however, and he took the bear back to his castle. Eventually, the she-bear fell in love with this prince, but knew that he would never love her back. Sensing her distress, her fairy godmother took pity on the princess, changing her back into a princess every day at midnight, as long as she was willing to return to her bearskin every morning.

"As this was happening, the prince found himself falling in love with the she-bear, something that he never expected. The kindness and gentleness behind the bear's mask of ferocity entranced him, and he grew closer and closer to the bear. Then, one day he stayed with her late until midnight, and witnessed the transformation of the bear into a dazzling princess.

"The princess was terrified that he would be disgusted, but, instead the king got down on one knee and proposed to her. After that, the two lived happily ever after."

Jasper finished, looking directly at me, too close, his eyes too warm, his breath too cool on my face. I had to back up, shaking my head fiercely to clear it.

"You made up that ending," I said, not quite able to keep the dazedness out of my voice. "Believe me, that fairytale reeked of sucky ending."

Shrugging slightly, Jasper admitted, "Maybe the ogre king eventually found the princess and slaughtered her children. However, the princess still found love, despite everything."

"You mean despite being a disgusting transforming animal?"

Jasper looked like he was about to pull his hair out of his head.

"You know as well as I do that I wasn't thinking it that way."

I shrugged because I did know that.

"Maybe."

"Leah," Jasper said, giving me another super-warm look. "Just keep your head up. You'll find someone eventually."

Before I could tell him that I'd probably still be single two million years in the future, someone knocked on the door.

"Leah!" Seth shouted. "Edward can hear wolf-thoughts not too far away. If Sam finds our car here-"

"Shit," I cursed. I looked at Jasper and said, "Sorry. I really have to take care of this." Then, praying that I could figure something out before Sam found out about my little detour, I burst out of Jasper's room and sprinted towards the front door.


End file.
